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Because “giving away” one of the most powerful analytic applications away isn’t enough, Google is now out to take on Exchange (well, in a way). Google Base is potentially rather revolutionary. Not that an online, freeform database is something that hasn’t been attempted before but this is, after all, Google Base.
Google creating a free system to help catalog any type of data should rattle a few cages; if you think that the Google Maps API was exciting just think what a global, crowd maintained super database will let people do (especially with a more-than-certain accompanying API). So when the rattling stops, and the animals have settled down again we can start forgetting how the world was like when we didn’t feed every bit of information we had into Google.
Let’s take a step back and look at what Google is handling right now: the web (Google Search ); our personal browsing habits (Toolbar , Analytics ); zeitgeist/press (News , Groups , Blogsearch , Blogger ); our shopping habbits (Froogle ); where we go/are (Maps , Earth , Local ); our entertainment (Video , Images , Picassa ); our files (Desktop ); our communication (Gmail , Talk ); and now everything else (Google Base ). All that and we’d still rather pinch its rosy cheeks, and coo at its adorable little thematic logos than start boarding the windows and wrap tin foil around our heads.
I wonder how people would react if say Microsoft got there first. To be honest, I’m still surprised they consistently get in 2nd or 3rd but seeing that people would most definitely, well, freak out maybe it’s actually a brilliant way to go about it. See, you can let Google do all this “world domination” stuff under their warm & fuzzy, carebear, “they do it because they love us” image; then, when nobody’s looking do the same thing without getting too much heat.
