Game Changer

Ok, I know I am in the middle of a series on iPhone apps...and we will continue that series...but for just a moment let's talk about the other real player in this market.  Android, notably the Motorola Droid.  Yes as much as we all hoped RIM would make the Storm (btw, if you have experience with the Storm2, post a comment and tell us what you think) into something - no go.  Then we all wanted the little guy, well the first guy to market - Palm...the Pre looked so promising, small, keyboard and touch screen, run multiple applications at once: failure...simply because as they copied and improved the form factor...Apple changed the game...."its about the apps stupid."

But don't fear, soon there will be an app store everywhere.  Ugh, can't wait to see how Apple will zig.

Google released Google Googles (GG) {on Android ONLY for now, not that I can blame them}.  Hopefully by now you have read some of the great reviews.   If not, do so, it's worth it.

So my take is unscientific, just a guy who is really interested in this space.  Here we go:

The Google Goggles core concept:  Visual Search - Just like we can search for information by typing in text or as in the Google iPhone App [Free] you can search with your voice by speaking into your phone.  Now you can search for what you see, via the camera, as a still picture, or even via live video.  Google Goggles does an image match and within seconds, you get the info about that object.  Think of some of the possibilities.  Business card scanning - now you truly connect, digitally.  Art and landmark information?  Awesome, you can connect the virtual summation of the world (also known as Google) and attach it to your reality.  That's the definition of cool!  

So you maybe thinking, why does Google care?  It's very simple if Google knows what you want, they can sell that information to advertisers.  They know you have an immediate need.  Is that bad? Heck no, it saves you time and gives your relavent information.  Remember what we did in the past when we needed to make a purchase?  What did we do in the past?  Drive by?  Use the Yellow Pages (Rest In Peace).  The concept is brilliant and it helps us.  (Now we all need to be adults and make our own decisions - it's just advertising, don't let it be brain washing.)

Local (as in: right in front of you) business information.  See what they have...see what others have to say (is the rumor true, did Google buy Yelp?)...hmmmm perfect match.  It's all very open and clear.  I believe it's a win-win...now if that changes (i.e.. if Google becomes evil), we make a change - vote with our businesses.  

The bottom line:  This is software/hardware to the next level.  We have some amazing minds among us, seems smart to leverage this new technology to improve your business.

What are your thoughts?  How will this effect your business?  Post a comment.

Comments

[jkbConsulting, LLC]

Wow, ok, I re-read my post and wow, clearly I was excited about the technology. Lots of great thoughts, but not written well. :) So I have updated the post. I chose not to do the strike through on the changes, there was just too many so readability really suffered.