When I was recently asked to write a blog for Ngen, I somehow felt obliged to write it on the subject of Google. I am a search specialist after all. I have decided to play it cool and write instead about some of Google’s lesser known and slightly more interesting projects.
Some of these ideas sound like they are straight out of a Tom Cruise film and whatever your opinion of them may be, good or evil; they certainly give us food for thought as advertisers both digital and non-digital.
Originally announced in 2011, the Google project, Android @ Home, was supposed to revolutionise the way we live. It was designed to link your device to your light bulbs, coffee pots, essentially everything and anything in your home that you could connect to the internet. Although nothing has been heard of this project since its original announcement, bigger nerds than me have reportedly seen home automation capabilities appearing in the Android 4.2.2 update.
Google’s top brass have a vision which is more ambitious. Chairman Eric Schmidt envisions a world in which even the mundane things in our lives are all hooked up to the World Wide Web. How about curtains that gradually open for you in the morning automatically. Your wardrobe will have your pressed suit ready to go for you and the device built into your shoes will give you a little pinch to remind you that it’s time to leave for work. Next question, how do you get to work?
In May 2012 the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles issued a licence to a driverless Toyota Prius that has been developed by Google. Eric Schmidt insists that in the future, this sort of technology will reduce accidents and congestion whilst freeing people up from the “inconvenience” of manually operating a car. Some people hypothesise that Google intend to display all manner of location based ads to the passengers in the car whilst they are on their journey’s.
These are not the only industries that Google has been revolutionising. Almost everyone has now heard of Google project glass and you can’t but help being impressed by the technology and the potential it has to be put to good use.
Imagine medical students being able to get a first person view of a complicated procedure from an expert’s perspective. People who have visual difficulties will have assistance from apps that help them read and navigate. The medical professionals themselves will get updates and patient information whilst on the way to an emergency.
Google and other companies are developing a pill which is actually a microscopic robot. It is filled with tiny sensors which monitor your bodily systems and wirelessly transmit the data to an external receiver. That means that in future your doctor could be calling you instead of the other way round. However another possibility would be targeted advertising based on your medical history. Someone suffering from heartburn might be served ads for indigestion pills etc.
These innovations will impact everything in our lives and our society. Although these ideas are quite daunting, we as the young generation of media professionals will have the responsibility of adapting the way our industry works and the way in which we and our clients choose to represent ourselves.
Issues of privacy are always prevalent with any new Google innovation. What will the limits be for who can access the information stored in the Google “mainframe” and what they can do with it? One can only hope the company sticks to its famous motto, “Don’t be evil.”
Andy Barton
Search Specialist
Reprise Media
THE ADNEWS NGEN BLOG: The Future According to Google
29 July 2013