Google Keeping Track Of "Real Time"

Google’s search results pages will never be the same.

In an effort to secure the lead in its quest for dominance in “real time,” Google recently announced exclusive feed deals with Twitter and Facebook, delivering a punch to Microsoft which had just announced advances of its own in the social media realm of tweets and updates.

Furthermore, Google also unveiled stunning new apps that exploit the possibilities of mobile device searches, such as Google Goggles, which is a visual search technology that employs image recognition software that can recognize and return search results based on mobile phone pictures. Supposedly, the technological capability is so advanced it can identify specific faces. Not impressive and/or scary enough for you? Well, there’s also a voice recognition system to go along with it.

It is quaint that people still say that Google is in the "search business." With its expansion to browser software and mobile devices and its involvement in online services such as Four Square and eBay, Google is beginning to look more like General Electric than Ask.com. Google exists in a special category of brands that wield power almost beyond contemplation but do not exhibit the brand moxie of, say, Apple. In other words, Google is now a brand that impacts everyone, even those who are not fans of, or even care about, Google.

The more information Google controls the more it becomes a part of every other existing brand -- perhaps one day even business schools will be forced to change the age-old standard SWOT analysis to a SWOT-G analysis. In fact, many wonder when the all-powerful Google is going to overstep the boundaries of good faith. Though the brand is responding to those concerns by addressing privacy issues (Google Privacy Dashboard), the real test is yet to come for "real time" Google.

The future of how Google can help human beings is now being sold on altruistic terms -- such as alerting your mobile device that right now you’re near the quarry where the marble for your favorite Italian statue came from. How nice.

But what happens when Google instructs your mobile device to offer you $1 off a roast beef sandwich at the Arby's you just walked by?