The Future of Google

There's little doubting that Google is out to take over the world. Given their brand recognition, user satisfaction and ability to infiltrate the market with new products, they may very well be on their way.

Of course, if they are going to take over the world, you want to be prepared for it. Here are 5 products that Google will release or will wide release in the very near future.

1. Google Voice - Google Voice has been out for a long time now, in fact, it's really a product that Google bought from Grand Central years ago. However, it's still in a semi-beta mode and not everyone can get an account just yet. However, once it is available to everyone, it very may well change the way you use your cell phone. Outside of possibly making cell phone use cheaper and giving you a second number, Google Voice will give you the ability to operate your phone from a dashboard on your computer. It gives you the ability to text message, read voicemails, listen to voicemails, and originate calls from your cell phone. Now, instead of ducking your phone under your desk every time your boss walks by, you can simply minimize the dashboard on your PC or Mac.

2. Google Wave - "A personal communication and collaboration tool." That's how Google describes its new Wave product. It essentially functions as a personal technology hub, where you can share messages, notes, photos, projects, ideas and play games. Wave is really being sold as having the means to create an ongoing conversation that can be updated live, on the fly and by all participants involved. Quite frankly, I'm not sure how it beats SMS quite yet, but I'm sure new APIs will make enhance its functional use.

3. Google Buzz - Buzz is the newly released Google product that is out to destroy Facebook and Twitter! Okay, that's not exactly their tag line, but it's true. Google Buzz comes preloaded with all of your Gmail contacts as friends or "followers," and they allow you to publish your thoughts with world instantaneously. Not to mention. Buzz allows you to share photos and interesting URLs, just like you would on Facebook. Also, not to eliminate Facebook and Twitter altogether, you can connect with those two social media sites, as well as Picasa and Flickr, to enhance your interactivity.

4. Google Chrome OS - Chrome is Google's own web browser. It's been out for a while, but hasn't been widely adapted yet, but it will, especially as Google skirts "trust" rules with the new applications its building that seem to work best with Chrome's browser. That being said, Chrome is slated to be a lot more than a browser. Chrome OS will serve as an open source operating system that will run on Linux. It will allow laptop users to run applications much more smoothly and without the dependency of the internet that most operating systems and applications require. It's incorporation of Gears, among other things, will likely challenge OS's and browsers alike when it is fully launched in the second half of 2010.

5. Goggles - This play on the Google name really isn't a play at all. Goggles will be a mobile application that incorporates image recognition for use in search. Essentially, mobile users will be able to take pictures with their camera phones and subsequently use these pictures as queries on Google's search engine. In turn, information on the photographed object will be displayed. For example, if you take a picture of book, the ISBN number, Amazon web page and author bio excerpt might be displayed on one's mobile browser.