Yesterday, I posted about the Collaborative Web--which I suppose you could call Web 3.0, even though we all agreed that versioning for web software is stupid. But wasn't Web 3.0 supposed to be the "Internet of Things"? Sensors, objects, all sorts of non-desktop computer-like stuff that collected info and connected us to our physical world in a more interactive way was supposed to be the next big thing.
Well, if you stop and piece together the vision behind the wacky Google stories about internet connected glasses, fiber to the home, or self-driving cars, you might notice Google throwing the long ball to a very advanced and very connected future.
Think about all of the places where the web is trying, with relative difficulty, to seamlessly connect away from the desktop. There's your living room, the local world around you, and your car. For the average person, this represents a huge portion of your non-working day--in fact, most of it. By building products that help shape the connected future of these activities, it seems that Google is skipping ahead a generation.
When your tablet is connected to the best in home internet pipe available and it knows what you're watching on TV, that gives it a huge advantage. Google is digging under Apple's Fort Knox of tablets and the near term Apple TV products--going deeper in the stack to the pipe that brings the bits in and potentially securing a distinct advantage among connected devices.
Same with Google Glass. Whether or not it wins the handset operating system war, it could be that in 15 years, no one even bothers with handsets--we're all just wearing our phones and visualizing displays in heads up fashion. Advantage Google.
And the car? Well instead of competing for your finite screen attention with everyone else, Google decided to figure out a way to give you more attention--to do other stuff for you that you might otherwise spend searching, clicking or paying for apps.
It's fine line beween genius and insanity--and some of these wackier ideas may turn out huge strategic advantages in the future.