10 Google Products To Look Out For In 2011

Clint Boulton eWEEK USA 2012. Ziff Davis Enterprise Inc. All Rights Reserved,

As we embark on a new year, eWEEK looks ahead to what 2011 could hold for the search giant Google

Google Tablet

To that end, 2010 saw the release of two Google-branded smartphones, the Nexus One and the newly arrived Nexus S. Now that Apple has almost single-handedly defined the tablet market for Samsung and the rest, we want to see a Google-branded tablet computer based on the forthcoming Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS. Maybe it’s this Motorola machine Android head Andy Rubin showed off last month. Or maybe Google wants to launch a Chrome OS tablet to accompany its Cr-48 notebook. We think a Google-branded tablet with the latest Google software could play well as an iPad alternative.

Augmented Reality Using Street View

In a conversation with eWEEK, Google Maps creator John Hanke mentioned that Google really wants to jazz up its Street View feature. Specifically, he mentioned the augmented reality technology of Layar, which could be used to enhance the information provided to consumers in Street View. Sounds like a match made in heaven to us.

Google Voice — Everywhere

Google tweaked Google Voice to enable calls to mobile and landline phones in Gmail this summer. In the true spirit of the network, it would be great if Google laced Voice capabilities throughout all of its web services. Imagine working on a document on Google Docs then clicking a button to initiate a call to discuss it with a team member.

Google Apps Goes Social

Google Apps should get some enhanced social functionality. Take the same Google Docs example. Instead of just being able to email a document, you can blast it out to contacts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. This could be part of or independent from the Google +1 efforts. But it would be fun to broadcast some Apps content to popular social network services.

Google Instant Expansion

We love Google Instant predictive search, and that it’s now available on mobile devices. But now that Google has set the bar so high, we want Instant functionality across all of Google’s searchable properties, including Images, Maps and YouTube.

Google TV Double Down

Many believe Google launched a half-baked Google TV product. We think the $300 price for Logitech Review, $400 for Sony Blu-ray players and $1,000+ for Sony Internet TVs biased a lot of our media colleagues. Sure, the product can get better and it already is. The Netflix app on Google TV is becoming more than just a dumb app, and the search capabilities are being improved. But we want Google to spend some of that $33 billion in cash on striking partnerships to get Google TV on all networks and websites. That means making sure Chrome is compatible with many websites, too.