Google has a serious problem right now: the new Mobile ecosystem is driving users to vertical search services: individual Apps.
Want to buy stuff, open Amazon Shopping App; want to find restaurants nearby, Yelp is at your service; Take a ride maybe? Uber is your best friend. Same thing could be said for a lot of other stuff, like Airbnb for renting and Flipboard for news(damn, poor Google Reader). What makes things worse is that those kinds of traffic are Google's cash cows.
The point is, in the era of mobile, there isn't a unified entrance for everything, not like the way Google dominates Web. I think that is why Google Now comes to play, to ensure user can access google's search service with a single swipe, but it is hard to tell whether this will work out or not.
Of course, Google has the best technology in town, but the internet is a more diverse places right now. Even though it owns Android and Chrome, it won't become the sole gatekeeper of all information. Google will not become the microsoft of the internet, and maybe this is a good thing.
Want to buy stuff, open Amazon Shopping App; want to find restaurants nearby, Yelp is at your service; Take a ride maybe? Uber is your best friend. Same thing could be said for a lot of other stuff, like Airbnb for renting and Flipboard for news(damn, poor Google Reader). What makes things worse is that those kinds of traffic are Google's cash cows.
The point is, in the era of mobile, there isn't a unified entrance for everything, not like the way Google dominates Web. I think that is why Google Now comes to play, to ensure user can access google's search service with a single swipe, but it is hard to tell whether this will work out or not.
Of course, Google has the best technology in town, but the internet is a more diverse places right now. Even though it owns Android and Chrome, it won't become the sole gatekeeper of all information. Google will not become the microsoft of the internet, and maybe this is a good thing.