One of the most unique applied product research efforts in recent history is coming to an end as Google Labs is being closed. The company that allows its workers to utilize up to 20 percent of their day working on their own development projects, has determined that the current corporate focus dictates that a different set of processes be in place to bring exciting new concepts to the web.
Google has already closed down two specific projects, Google Health and Google Powermeter, in order to trim the roster of existing applications and projects ahead of the Labs closure. The remaining projects are slated to stand alone, be moved to the Android Marketplace, or be shut down as well.
As an example, there is no doubt that Google Transliteration is a useful product for many. Allowing users to type a sentence in English and convert the results to Spanish or Japanese using phonetics with all the accents and characters complete is a great concept. Perhaps porting it as a feature to Google Docs and the Android Marketplace will ensure that its developers will be integrated more directly into the company's profit areas.
Google Docs is another example of an application that was developed by Google Labs over a period of time and then commercially released to the general public. The City of Los Angeles and several other major corporations have now committed to switching their existing infrastructure over to Google Apps, with Google Docs and its integrated e-mail. For businesses that are considering a move to the cloud for their employees, Google Apps and Microsoft Office 365 are now both mandatory evaluation partners.
Spokespeople for Google did say that there will be no change to the popular options that allow Google Apps and Maps users to try out new features as they are developed; they will instead be continued under a different name.
No comments:
Post a Comment