The best of Google in 2009

Rudolph Muller

Rudolph Muller is the editor at MyBroadband and covers telecoms and broadband news. Rudolph comes from an academic background, but left the University of...

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Google has always been innovative but this year it really turned up the heat, rolling out new products at a rapid pace. From mobile applications to new desktop tools, Google’s innovations are pushing users into new and interesting places, and challenging some old established markets. We take a look at some of Google’s products and innovations over the past year.

Google Wave

In May this year Google finally demonstrated its much-hyped Google Wave collaboration application. Billed as the future of email it served to drum up much anticipation ahead of the September limited-user test phase. Google invited 100 000 users to test out the new Wave and shortly after that began expanding it invitations to other users, now apparently up to 1 million strong. Although a strong idea, Wave has had many users bemused as to exactly what it is that they should do with it.

Chromium OS

Anther much-hyped launch was for Chromium OS, Google’s desktop operating system. Chromium OS had been spoken about for a number years before July when Google finally confirmed its plans to release an operating system. Finally in November Google made the source code for Chromium OS available to users and showed off its lightweight, internet-focused desktop. Users can use the virtual machine images or bootable USB versions to try out Chromium OS.

Android 2.0

Google’s mobile phone operating system made a big splash this year. And although it wasn’t released this year, Android 2.0 was released in 2009 and the operating system started showing up on many more phones than before. Using Android as a base, Google also introduced a range of Android applications that on their own stood out from the crowd, including Goggles, Maps Navigation and Google Listen.

Chrome browser

Google’s Chrome browser also wasn’t released in the past year but Google did release beta versions of its browser for Linux and Mac OS X late this year. Google’s Chromium browser – the development version – has been progressing quickly and version 4.0.x, the latest version, now includes extensions, personas and is still one of the fastest browsers around.

Google Maps Navigation

Google Maps Navigation is a game changer. Although not yet available outside the US, Maps Navigation gives users turn-by-turn GPS navigation using Google Maps and its various overlays. For traditional GPS makers the challenge is obvious: Maps Navigation gives users what they want at zero cost. Garmin and Tom Tom will now have to boost their offerings to keep ahead of the Google.

Realtime search

Google also released real-time search late this year. It’s new competitor, Microsoft’s Bing, announced it was including Facebook and Twitter updates in its search results. In response Google rolled out its own version of real-time search which includes live updates from blogs, news sites, Twitter, Facebook, and others in search results.

Google Goggles

Looking to find new and interesting ways for users to search for information, Google also released Goggles, a visual search tool. Running on Android 2.0, Goggles allows users to take a picture with their mobile phone and find search results based on that. So, for example, users can take a snap of a landmark building and found out when it was built, by whom and its history. While the search works on most objects, Google has blocked searches for human faces until it is sure of the implications of that.

Google Squared

Another version of search was provided in Google’s Squared search application. Squared gives users a method of searching for information and then building “squares” or block of information around that item. So, for example, a search for digital cameras could have squares for resolution, colour handling, digital zoom and other features which makes it easy to compare. Some things work better than others in Squared but it’s worth a look.

The list of Google innovations is almost endless and in addition to these Google also released these this year: Google Go, a programming language, News Timeline, a visual representation of news, Latitude, a location-based service, and many more.

The best of Google – which ones do you use?