OK, Google...Now What? Five Products That Might Be

PC World's Techlog? There are days when I wonder if this blog should be called PC World's Googlelog, considering how often I come back to that company and its doings. Then again, few topics have ever given a tech journalist so much to write about: Google is releasing new stuff on so many fronts, at such a rapid pace, that it was only mildly surprising that it launched both a sweeping update to its Google Desktop software and an instant messaging/voice chat client last week.
Let's see...since the start of last year, Google has released...

Two groundbreaking services. Google Maps (which is a landmark in part just because it's so darn fast) and Gmail.

A bunch of non-revolutionary but still worthwhile tools. Google Talk and Google Desktop come to mind.

Two excellent free upgrades to nifty programs it intelligently acquired. That would be Picasa and the satellite mapping program now known as Google Earth.

Several out-there betas which could eventually be a big deal. Like Google Print, for instance. (I was also blown away by an automated translation demo I saw back in May.)

...and Google Web Accelerator, which gets my vote as Google's one really lame launch, since its initial version cached users' private views of message boards and other Web content--and then accidentally showed them to other users. (That was back in May; Google shut off the service to new users shortly thereafter, and it remains closed.)

That's a dizzying array of initiatives, and it shows that the company's mission--"to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful"--is one that it takes seriously and defines liberally. It also shows that the company's strategy is a long-term one, since the company keeps releasing services and software that are both free and ad-free. (Wonder how long that will last?)

So what's next? Google--which rarely acknowledges any new offering until it's live on the Web--isn't talking. But just about everyone else on the Web is...or so it sometimes seems. That is, Google pundits are speculating about what's in the works--sometimes based on actual evidence, sometimes on intuition, and sometimes on a little bit of both. (And Google punditry is a thriving business--I'm a regular visitor to John Battelle's Searchblog, The Unofficial Google Weblog, and InsideGoogle.)

Herewith, a quick roundup of some of these Google Products That Might Be:

GoogleNet
What it might be: A nationwide broadband network that provides free Wi-Fi access, possibly subsidized by localized Google advertising. Evidence it's in the works: Google has been buying up unused fiber-optic cable around the country. Read more about it: Business 2.0's Om Malik has been all over this story.

Gbrowser
What it might be: A Mozilla-based, Google-branded Web browser with some unique Google functionality. (Every time the company launches something new, this idea makes more sense--or at least I can sure envision a browser that incorporates aspects of such products as Google Toolbar, Google Desktop, Gmail, and Google Talk.) Evidence it's in the works: Google owns the domain name Gbrowser.com. Read more about it: Here's a BBC report from last year, when this rumor first cropped up. If Google really has been working on this that long, I wouldn't be startled to see it emerge from the labs before long.

Google Office
What it might be: A competitor to Microsoft Office. Your guess is as good as mine as to what that might entail. How about a mean-and-lean browser-based suite that stores everything online and is compatible with the Microsoft file formats? Evidence it's in the works: None, but it's fun to speculate about. Read more about it: Gary Rivlin's recent New York Times story on Google mentions it in passing as a current subject of industry scuttlebutt.

GoogleOS
What it might be: A rich browser-based, Web-enabled application platform that runs on any computing platform and starts to compete with traditional operating systems (such as, well, Microsoft Windows). Evidence it's in the works: Nothing specific, but the more well-rounded and sophisticated Google's suite of Web-based tools becomes, the more sense it makes. Read more about it: Blogger Jason Kottke outlines what GoogleOS could be. (It's a long but rewarding read; I think Kottke's latched onto the most plausible scenario in which Windows' dominance might see serious erosion.)

Google Grid
What it might be: GoogleOS on steroids, with unlimited storage and clever personalization features based on the 2007 Google-Amazon merger that formed the Web powerhouse known as Googlezon. Evidence it's in the works: This one's definitively fictional...for now at least. Read more about it: If you haven't seen Robin Sloan and Matt Thompson's amazing little work of speculative fiction in the form of a Flash movie, check it out.

Got any thoughts on any of the above? Or ideas for Google services you'd like to see?