Google’s chiaroscuro motif

One question that merits some consideration is, “Why is Google introducing more comprehensive real estate services in Australia and encouraging the United Kingdom to make use of Google Health?”

Google is not making any attempt to hide those two initiatives. My research suggests Google is taking advantage of the interest that Australia and England have shown in using its services. The United States is becoming an increasingly contentious market for Google, with new legal initiatives gaining momentum regarding Google Books. The United States is also an economy under some stress. Google may perceive that the opportunities to move quickly and obtain useful feedback are greater outside the United States.

Other observations that warrant a brief comment illuminate the competitive potency of Google’s approach to business. First, Google can assemble comprehensive services that may be localized for a particular country such as Australia and be able to deploy those services in other countries with localized interfaces. The storage of data and the other back-office functions run on the Google global infrastructure.

Second, Google’s health information services and system, for example, are easily enhanced or tuned to solve specific problems. Yet at their core, the new services are just different Google services working together to reduce an information pain. Most are constructions that have more in common with the way in which Lego blocks are assembled. Individual parts are combined to build what is needed.

Third, Google Apps, along with other Google technical components such as its application programming interfaces, give clever individuals a way to build enterprise solutions that tap into Google’s infrastructure as required. With Google Apps out of beta and viewed as a full-fledged product, the number of Google enterprise applications will increase more rapidly than before.

In short, those initiatives make it easier to discern the depth, scope and edges of Google’s technical infrastructure. Will competitors see the new Google that is emerging in sharper detail? My hunch is that some business sectors underestimate Google. Not a good idea in my opinion.