Anyhow, as the new year starts, there are articles now published about what Google should be doing in the new year. Here are some examples and I've summarized all the main points for you because who has time to read all of them right?! (me.. lol):
1) Google+ comes into its own
2) Android puts its house in order
3) Ceding tablet territory while building content
4) GDrive cements cloud domination
1) Release a killer tablet (a.k.a. iPad killer)
2) Stop talking about GoogleTV and just start shipping it (gawddarnit!)
3) Raise the bar for what's ready to ship
4) Aggressively design for users, not nerds
5) Stop playing catchup.
6) Compromise less, play hardball more.
1) Launch an iPad competitor
2) End Google+
3) Google Wallet
There are a gabillion other posts out there but these 3 were my favourites. My POV is a mixture of the 3.. but I am quite confuzzled as to why no one is talking about the Google Wallet more. Um.. hello? NFC? I totally believe that Google can up its game in this space and subsequently endear itself to end users, especially as merchants and customers alike are looking to alternatives to cash/processor-merchant relationship. This is certainly obvious with the success of such payment-disrupting organizations such as Square.
Double this up with Google and its recent acquisition of Zagat. Google should perhaps look into rolling this whole NFC bit to a portion of its Zagat-rated merchants as a pilot, provide them with a minor incentive (and their regular customers) and see how it goes. I can see this building momentum (at first, locally) and a widespread adoption of NFC technology will follow. They can even focus on large local events (such as the London Olympics as post 3, point 3 states) as a start!
Note that NFC is not only for payment processing. Here's something I just thought up:
I'm in a new city and there's a tag for a cupcake shop just posted at a traffic light post on a popular street corner.
I can then scan it and find its location. Google Maps will bring me to the location.
I arrive at the location and I see an amazing cupcake display with all these yummy goodies.
All of them are tagged of course with what flavor it is, maybe even the ingredients and price.
I can then start scanning what cupcakes I want and voila, my list goes to the cash where I can then use a (hopefully) encrypted payload. :) While I eat my cupcake at a local park, someone asks me where I got them. I can then NFC the info to them which will then start up the process again.
Nom, nom, nom, nom.
Oops, here I am blabbing on about NFC but if you don't know what it is, this video talks about it:
Fully explained by folks from Google to boot (note that the first 17 minutes are what appeals to the business users and the remainder of the video is more technical. Skip to 39 minutes for Privacy and Security).
One of the points in the list above is also to design for users, not nerds. I get that. I'm not a technical person and I love Apple's intuitive designs and feel that Google can certainly make things a lot more 'user-friendly'. Perhaps to the point where its technology does not and will not necessitate a manual. That's the gold standard. I think NFC will certainly be more talked about if it reached more of a greater mass of end users, specifically those that are not too technical.
Okay, all for now!
XO,
Care
Cost: Free
Tools Used: Zagat, Chrome, Blogger, Youtube, Google, NFC
