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the Free CMSWire NewsletterGoogle fell under new management this year, and the shake up resulted in some heavy changes. A new idea of what legitimate content should look like, a social network that the company refuses to call a social network, and the loss of an experimental playground are just a few. In case you missed a beat, here's a look back at the highlights.
1. Catch Ya Later, Eric
The year started with a move that promised permanent change: The departure of CEO Eric Shmidt. After nearly 10 years, Google's main man stepped down to Executive Chairman and co-founder Larry Page took over.
While Google and co. tried to promote excitement over the change, many considered the company’s recent — and heavy — talent losses: AdMob co-founder Omar Hamoui, Google Maps and Wave creator Lars Rasmussen and YouTube co-founder and CEO Chad Hurley all left the Internet giant within months of each other.
Google designer Douglas Bowman’s famous 2009 bow-out resurfaced, along with a personal blog post that provided a peek into the dark side of working for a massive company:
Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case. I can’t operate in an environment like that. I’ve grown tired of debating such minuscule design decisions. There are more exciting design problems in this world to tackle.
When Rasmussen left to go work for Facebook, he too claimed Google's growing size hindered the ability to get things done. "The energy there is just amazing, whereas it can be very challenging to be working in a company the size of Google," he said. In fact, of the more than 1,900 Facebook employees with resumes on LinkedIn, 300 of them list Google as a past employer.
Given these critiques, most of us guessed that the change in management would likely target faster decision making processes, bigger projects and better results. And boy did it.
2. +1
Facebook's "Like" button had a good solo run across the Web, but nothing lasts forever. Google's +1 hit the ground running, allowing users to recommend content to their friends and contacts directly from Google search results, ads, websites, etc.
"With a single click you can recommend that raincoat, news article or favorite sci-fi movie to friends, contacts and the rest of the world," read Google's official statement. "The next time your connections search, they could see your +1’s directly in their search results, helping them find your recommendations when they’re most useful."
That usefulness later went international, influencing Search results everywhere and expanding the company's Facebook-like friendliness:
3. The Big Social Move: Google Plus
The long-rumored Google Plus network made a low-key private launch in June. At first it looked a lot like Facebook but with different names for its tools (Circles instead of Groups, +1 instead of Like, etc.) but time has told a different story for Big G's contribution to the social Web.
The most important thing to keep in mind about Plus is that it is not a standalone product, so it shouldn't be compared to the likes of Facebook. Instead, it aims to be the hub, the central point, of the entire Google experience. In most recent times, we've seen the injection of Google+ into Reader, Blogger and YouTube already. Eventually, all of Google will be integrated.
“We think of Google+ as a mode of usage of Google,” said Google executive, Bradley Horowitz. “[It's] a way of lighting up your Google experience as opposed to a new product. It’s something that takes time to appreciate, even internally. It’s easy to think of Google+ as something other than just Google, and I think it’ll take more launches before the world catches up with this understanding.”
In case you've been living under a rock, here's a quick video showing the basic interface. There's a focus on the division of friends into groups, so you're more clear on which people are receiving which updates:
Plus is also taking a turn for the Business side of things with Google Pages, a point for companies to get in on the action. Google SVP for Engineering, Vic Gundotra, highlighted the main advantages:
For you and me, this means we can now hang out live with the local bike shop, or discuss our wardrobe with a favorite clothing line, or follow a band on tour. Google+ pages give life to everything we find in the real world. And by adding them to circles, we can create lasting bonds with the pages (and people) that matter most.
For businesses and brands, Google+ pages help you connect with the customers and fans who love you. Not only can they recommend you with a +1, or add you to a circle to listen long-term. They can actually spend time with your team, face-to-face-to-face. All you need to do is start sharing, and you'll soon find the super fans and loyal customers that want to say hello.
4. The Rise of Chrome
Google's frequent updates gave its Chrome browser a nice little edge this year, and the app store added a boost in convenience. Now you can have a podcast playing in the background, run Google Docs, have a game of Angry Birds that auto-pauses when you tab out of it, and generally run everything at once, all the time. It's a world of fun.
Other browsers like Firefox and IE can match a lot of this functionality, but Chrome seems to be adopting the app/cloud lifestyle we're used to and is most definitely faster than its rivals. In fact, The latest version just passed Internet Explorer 8 to become the most popular desktop web browser in all the land. According to statistics from StatCounter, Chrome 15 took 23.6% of the worldwide market compared with Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8 at 23.5% in the last full week of November.
"Google announced Chrome for business exactly a year ago and IT administrators appear to have embraced it in a remarkably short time," said Aodhan Cullen, CEO, StatCounter. "Looking at the daily stats, Chrome 14 and 15 have been overtaking IE8 at weekends since the beginning of October. However, Chrome 15 overtook IE8 for the first time during the five day working week, in week commencing 5th December. It looks as if people favour Chrome on weekends at home but office commercial use has now caught up."
5. The Rise of the Chromebook
Naturally, the Chromebook is next on the list. Google's go-Cloud-or-go-home OS launched with much fanfare at this year's Google I/O, and these Samsung machines are currently sporting some serious road worthiness.
With Google now pushing the OS as a credible alternative to Windows PCs and Macs, can this reignite plummeting sales of affordable notebooks (as everyone goes iPad-crazy) or will concern over what it means to have all of your crucial data hosted in the cloud reign supreme?
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