What Is Google Up To?
Ulimately history will judge whether Google is the altrusistic, save-the-planet-by-revolutionizing-the-world company it professes to be (its mission statement "Don't Be Evil"), or wheter it is the cutrhorat capitalist monster that it makes its rival Microsoft out to be. But for now, Google continues to get a free pass and with that free pass comes the privileges of free media on an almost Obama-like scale.The New York Times runs what can only be described as an advertisement for a soon-0-be-launched Google service that has something to do with energy.
Google is famously coy about sharing details of its production innovations, a launch strategy that only creates buzz and drives commercial interest.
In the Times article, Google Executiv Ed Lu (an absolute badass who has flown two space shuttle missions and circled the planet 3,.300 times according to the Times--but I digress), hints at a forthcoming consumer tool that will empower consumers to make more informed choices about energy.
The Times reports:
"[Lu] chose to explain Google’s thinking with an analogy. Buying electricity today, he said, is a bit like going to a grocery store where the items have no prices and where you get billed a month later for your purchases. Some engineers in Mr. Lu’s team, are working on tools to turn energy buyers into more informed consumers, he said."
"[Lu] chose to explain Google’s thinking with an analogy. Buying electricity today, he said, is a bit like going to a grocery store where the items have no prices and where you get billed a month later for your purchases. Some engineers in Mr. Lu’s team, are working on tools to turn energy buyers into more informed consumers, he said."
Given that Google's mission is to organize every scrap of information on the planet, one can infer that the company is getting ready to launch some sort of tool that will allow consumers to literally shop for their energy needs. It is a safe bet that information will be categorized in just about every conceivable manner: type of energy (alternaive, fossile, etc.), price, etc.
Google's track record for innovation is impressive so the product-- whatever it turns out to be-- should match the buzz that's already builiding. And you can bet that the Google guys wll find a way to monetize it in traditional Google fashion.
posted by CalEnergyGuy at 9:59 AM
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