Google Conquers Time

Google Conquers Time
Quentin Hardy, 12.07.09, 04:50 PM EST
Real-time search, translation, location--everywhere?

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. -- Years ago, Google defined its mission as "organizing all the world's information," which seemed to many like a slightly pretentious way of talking about Internet search. On Monday the company introduced products for simultaneous translation, real-time Web information and location-based awareness--in other words, evidence Google was serious about its boast.

At a press briefing at the Googleplex, the company displayed features like instantaneous recognition of photos taken with a mobile phone, translation of spoken speech from one language to another (also via a mobile phone), improved voice-based search on phones, maps that show nearby locations of any location pressed on a touch screen, and real-time search results based on updates from sources like Twitter, Facebook and MySpace, in addition to traditional sources. Google ( GOOG - news - people ) said the real-time product is already crawling 1 billion objects a day.
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The functions Google showed are all, of course, based on the Internet, and largely dependent on the millions of computers inside the "cloud" of Google's data centers. Yet the features increasingly attempt to draw the physical world into the Web. In another feature, Google teamed with Best Buy ( BBY - news - people ) to offer real-time inventory information about product availability at local stores.

Google likely assumes it can make a bundle from all this immediacy. For one thing, its utility means we will spend even more time on the Internet, searching for the most recent facts and looking at even more Google ads. In addition, it's likely that the information Google collects as it watches people search and navigate in all these systems will increase the value of the ads it auctions. Better understanding of behavior, after all, makes if more likely Google can offer the appropriate advertisement.

In one demonstration, Google vice president of engineering Vic Gundotra spoke the words "Pictures of Barack Obama with the French president at the G-8 Summit," and received the appropriate images. The service, already available in English and Mandarin, was announced for Japanese, and Gundotra said Google's aim is to offer it for all the world's major languages.
Real-Time Quotes
01/06/2010 5:34PM ET

Searching for images via phone pictures is still somewhat limited--a demo using a wine bottle label flopped, and Gundotra had to rely on taking a photo of an image on screen (doubtless, already inside Google's servers). The product is likely being released so Google can build up a database of images and behaviors, to improve quality.