The shocking scale of Google’s grand plan

• 2 days ago February 26, 2014  // http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/the-shocking-scale-of-googles-grand-plan/story-fn5lic6c-1226838183958

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The good old days. Google co-founders executive Larry Page (l) with Sergey Brin at Google in 2000. Source: AP

IN 1998 Google started as a search company in a California garage.

Fast forward 15 years and it’s worth nearly $US400 billion and is one of the world’s biggest and most talked about companies.
But rather than retire to an island somewhere, Google’s founders have embarked on a huge spending spree, investing or buying up companies at a rate of more than one a week for the last four years.
The result is a behemoth like we’ve never seen before with tentacles reaching inot every area of your life. Take a look at just some of the things Google has been up to.

Sergey Brin (L) and Larry Page have developed a ‘moonshot’ factory to take on big ideas that change the world. Source: AP

The Moonshot Factory
Some of Google’s most famous new products have come from Google X, their in-house ‘Moonshot Factory’, hidden in a secret bunker at their California headquarters.
It’s run by “Captain of Moonshots” Astro Teller — the grandson of physicist Edward Teller, known as “father of the hydrogen bomb” — and is designed to find ideas that can make the world 10 times better in 10 years, the BBC reports.
It’s responsible for creating driverless cars in a bid to reduce the one million people killed on roads each year and they have covered 300,000 miles of California roads without incident. There are also rumours swirling that Google is working on their own car, independent of any other manufacturers, with artificial intelligence and connected hardware embedded throughout the design.
It’s also launched Project Loon, where giant hot air balloons were released from New Zealand’s South Island into the stratosphere to expand internet coverage all over the world.

Would you trust this car on the roads? Google’s driverless car is a result of the ‘Moonshot factory’ Source: Supplied

Owning the internet
Not content with dominating search, Google has been working to revolutionise life online.
It’s developed Gmail, GooglePlus, AdWords and AdSense which allow it to build up a perfect picture of consumer habits and provide tailored advertising to clients. The company also has Google Chrome, Translate and Books and Maps which covers every street and monument in the world in glorious 3D.
But it didn’t stop there. Google owns the world’s biggest blogging platform Blogger, Picasa and video giant YouTube which it bought for $1.65 billion. It’s so good, Google will soon know you better than your spouse, Google’s engineering boss recently said.
Technology guru Iain McDonald, of Razorfish Australia, said recent acquisitions in artificial intelligence (AI) such as Deep Mind, could see Google really refine its search offering. “AI could take into account the semantics of you as a person and give a more contextually relevant response to your query and able to interpret our own needs as individuals,” he said. So, think Siri on acid and then some.
Google Ventures and Google Capital have been specifically designed to invest in new companies. They’ve recently spent money on SurveyMonkey, Lending Club and cloud-based learning system Renaissance Learning.
Sci-fi devices

Writer Barbara Ortutay tries out Google Glass. Source: AP

Mystery barges built in San Francisco Bay will be used as interactive learning centres. Source: NewsComAu

With the online world sewn up, the company is looking at ways to infiltrate people’s lives when they’re not sitting at a desk or one their phone.
Enter Google Glass, a wearable computer which takes pictures, records video, delivers messages and helps people communicate whether they’re going for a run or sitting on a bus.
Mr McDonald added: “My take is over the next 10 years, we’re going to see an explosion of connected things, it’s the internet of things movement.
For anyone who is interested in data and human behaviour, the next evolution is not just desktop computers but connected devices such as wearable technology.”
It’s also bought a wind turbine company based in the Mojave Desert and raised the ire of San Francisco city officials with huge ‘mystery barges’ in San Francisco Bay set to be used as interactive learning spaces.
Robots

Meet your new pet. Google has bought Boston Dynamics, the company that makes advanced robots like Big Dog. Source: Supplied

Google recently bought “advanced robots” company Boston Dynamics for an undisclosed sum, leading to plenty of nervous speculation that it’s creating the next Terminator.
The company makes humanoid robots with “mobility, agility, dexterity and speed” used by the US army, navy and marine corps. One of their most famous is Big Dog, a 109kg beast that can carry 155 kilograms, and Cheetah which runs faster than Usain Bolt. Another version, Atlas, can climb hills like a human.
It’s the eighth robot company Google has snapped up in six months, along with Schaft, Meka and Redwood Robotics. The company hasn’t announced plans yet but the robot project is headed up by Andy Rubin, who built Google’s Android system, and there is speculation they’ll use them in the supply chain for delivery. The company is already delivering packages for major retailers in parts of San Francisco.
“If Amazon can imagine delivering books by drones, is it too much to think that Google might be planning to one day have one of the robots hop off an automated Google Car and race to your doorstep to deliver a package?” the New York Times reports.
The home

Mirrors at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the Mojave Desert. Source: AFP

Since launching Android smartphones in 2008 Google has worked to expand its reach into the home with speculation the company is creating a new breed of ‘smart appliances’ that will be able to tell when you arrive home and when you need to stock up on milk.
It recently bought automation company Nest — which regulates thermostats and smoke alarms — for $3.2 billion and in doing so snapped up the talented Tony Fadell, who founded the company after designing the iPod and iPhone for Apple. If you’re wondering why Google would pay that much money for a smoke alarm business, it’s because the company is banking on a future of connected homes, which is technology Nest is already ahead in.
The acquisition could be part of a grand plan to understand human behaviour offline, Wired reports. Just as Gmail allows Google to know what its customers are writing about, Nest will allow it to build up a picture of what we’re doing at home.
“One area of human behaviour Google has yet to colonise as successfully is what we do when we’re not directly interacting with a screen, whether on a PC or mobile device. That in theory changes with Nest,” Wired wrote.
Your body

Natalie Farnworth with her husband Andre, daughter Amelie, 5 and son Lucas, 3 had her DNA recorded. Source: News Limited

A Google prototype of a smart contact lens that’s built to measure glucose levels in tears using a tiny wireless chip and miniaturised glucose sensor. Source: Supplied

In addition to what you’re buying and what’s in the fridge, Google also wants to know what’s in your DNA.
It launched Calico last year and hired a bunch of high profile geneticists to tackle ageing and extend human life. Google engineering director Ray Kurwzweil has made no secret of his interest in artificial intelligence.
The company also released a contact lens that will monitor glucose levels for diabetics and Google founder Sergey Brin started up 23andMe, a genetics company that allows people to test their DNA and find out if they’re susceptible to diseases like cancer. The company was eventually forced to stop selling the kits as they used saliva testing.
Mr McDonald said what Google is doing will give us a window into our own bodies so we understand ourselves much deeper, with technology advances soon to be able to accurately and instantaneously measure our dietary intake, blood oxygen levels or just about anything. “This will solve real problems for real people,” he said.
“You can see it changing the way people go on diets for example. Why look on a packet to figure out how many calories are in that mouthful when your watch can tell you in real time?
“And then pair that with artificial intelligence and virtual doctors.”
So what’s the grand plan?

Project Loon aims to send balloons to the edge of space to improve web access. Source: AFP

Mr McDonald said: “My take is over the next 10 years, we’re going to see an explosion of connected things, it’s the internet of things movement. For anyone who is interested in data and human behaviour, the next evolution is not just desktop computers but connected devices such as wearable technology.
“The two Google founders have shown they have a real passion for the future and where it’s growing. It’s not a short term play, it’s a medium to long-term play. Things such as artificial intelligence have a huge place in any future with technology and the benefit of being a leader in that space can’t be underestimated.”
But should all this new technology scare people? After all, depictions of futuristic dystopias usually start with artificial intelligence or an over-reliance on technology. Mr McDonald said: “If we show people from 15 years ago what we have today, it would look like scary technology. But once there’s a genuine benefit and it’s technology people don’t want to live without, those fears are overcome.”
Google wasn’t drawn on their recent acquisitions, but directed news.com.au to a statement made by Larry Page when he returned to the company as CEO in 2012 which said it’s focusing on “big bets that will make a difference in the world”.
Mr Page believes technology should do the hard work in life, leaving people free to do what they want and said plenty of their ideas sounded crazy to begin with but now pass the “toothbrush test” and are used by millions of people once or twice a day.
“I have always believed that technology should do the hard work — discovery, organisation, communication — so users can do what makes them happiest: living and loving, not messing with annoying computers!”
“We have always believed that it’s possible to make money without being evil,” he said.
Let’s just hope they keep it that way.