To be serious, it seems there are rumours that Google wishes to develop a next-generation OS: hxxp://www.kottke.org/04/04/google-operating-system - Sorry I can't post live links right now even I have posted more than 10 times Interesting!
Google has aspirations of being big brother. Add it up -- - To combat link manipulation they need new ways to validate search results - gmail has worked very well for them for keyword tracking - now they have an IM capable of the same thing - They're quietly aquiring tons of fiber worldwide - In order to provide voip and net tv they needs lots of cheap bwidth Tracking urls and keywords via all email and im conversations would provide this validation. Providing cheap or free broadband to major markets while tracking all user habits would be any marketing executives wet dream.
What would Google do with $4 billion? Perhaps buy AOL before Microsoft do? http://www.threadwatch.org/node/3840
They are definitely going to develop an OS in the near future. They have the ability, or if they don't they could just buy the ability.
yeah, kicking Telkom's ass would be a good thing. Wouldn't it just make them crap in their pants if the new competitor was the big G
I believe it is too early for a google OS. I guess they will carry on building their own applications like google video player, google talk, .. then they will think about an OS. On the other hand I think the only reason google offers google talk is to promote gmail. at least for the short term. G knows
This will be the day everybody is waiting for. To be connected on the internet everywhere he/she goes and be tracked by relatives whose looking for him/her by GPS when they want to. I know some places are already enjoying this. But some other part of the world don't so I hope google is also thinking about it. A global sim card perhaps with same rates as in the local?
It's good that Google is diversifying, but I don't think they are going to lose touch with their core fans, the search engine users