Couldn’t it be different, when this company is a the major player on the Internet market and on the advertising market, but it’s also a main character in all the major business trends, such as semantics, gaming, mobile, micro-payment and (recently) e-books?
But let’s see some news, all part of the global scenario:
- “Is Google a content company?” (07/03/08), which is only one of the several news on Google as semantics trendsetter;
- “Google to play games with AdSense” (10/11/08), which is one of the first news of this kind;
- “WPP and Google Launch Media Research Grant Program” (10/29/08), which is almost the official entrance of Google into the traditional advertizers list;
- “Introducing AdSense for mobile search” (02/13/09), which is the second, obvious extension of Google’s main feature in the emerging mobile market;
- “Google developing a micropayment platform and pitching newspapers: Open need not mean free” (09/11/09), which is more relevant than the former launch of CheckOut;
- and, recently, “Google Editions Embraces Universal E-book Format” (10/17/09), a direct consequence of Books and a direct move “against” Amazon.
In my previous post “I’d love work with Amazon” I already spoke about “Amazon rolls out mobile app payment service”.
This is a very hot topic, as the news record another company acting in the same direction: “Nokia and Tanla Sign an Agreement for License Management, Mobile Payments and Professional Services”.
Well, Google is acting also on this issue, with a diversified strategy which could on the one hand let it test the solution and on the other gather other players to develop it.
Keeping an eye on what Google does is actually a good way to see where there is the most of the potential future business.
Others are keeping the other eye on financial outcomes (Google’s III quarter seems we can think the crisis is over), but those are only a passive global economic litmus paper.

