There’s lots of popular press already harping all over Google Chrome as a game-changer in the “war” against Microsoft, et al. though in my [limited, cursory] search I’ve not seen any assessments that parallel my own vision of what this means for Google from the standpoint of technological strategy and scalability of ‘the cloud’.

Wired says Chrome was aptly named given common design elements associated with web browsers.  That makes for a cutesy red herring – I think those Googlers think abstractly and creatively like I do.  The name Chrome fits because it is a common element layered upon a willing substrate.  Chrome fits because the Greek origin of the word means “color” and Chrome can be reflective of the entire visible spectrum.

Mkay, I’ll dispense with the metaphorical musings and cut to the chase: the Chrome browser is not about web pages or applications as we know them.  Chrome – the browser – can be applied to a variety of substrates that may or may not exist at present.  Sure, an all-out assault on entrenched desktop operating systems are a no-brainer.  But what about the OS platforms and interfaces for mobile, embedded [household electronics], interactive TV, point-of-purchase, home automation…

These are not teh applicationz u seek…

Slap some Chrome on deez…

Add one part ubiquitous connectivity and a dollop of the complete sacrifice of privacy to obtain…

• A text sent to your mobile device: “I noticed no one is home and your garage is still open.  Reply 1 to close and arm the security system.”  Home automation can happen anywhere IP is available.
• On a restaurant menu or point of sale: “Press to view ingredients and a map of their origin.”  Google buys E Ink in 2010 for enhanced extensibility and utility of the cloud.
• Amazon reminds your automotive dashboard that you’re low on milk as you approach a convenience store.  Google Proximity Alerts and Bezos’ Bonanza regularly stock your fridge and drain your wallet.
• Digital television offers cross-pollination of web content and services.  Like Emeril’s blender? Buy it.  Think that politician is full of crap? Overlay the twitter backchannel.
• Sorry, cable conglomerates: a la carte TV channels and brand-agnostic video consumption is nigh.
• The Department of Education subsidizes “interactive education” initiatives to cut costs, deploy vetted ‘collective knowledge’ and facilitate global and local collaboration.
• Stuck in a foreign land without a translator or cultural savvy?  Never again.
• Digital photos and video include embedded meta data that provide a virtual timeline of conditions, events, commentary, and context to your pocket.

I have no qualifications or rationale other than pure conjecture to come up with these scenarios, but I’m certain the Chrome browser can and will serve as a conduit for elucidating and facilitating knowledge exchange, commerce, and location- and behavioral-based artificial/suggestive intelligence.  It’s not about what the browser will display, it’s about what the browser will suggest, connect and convey.

As likely as any of these ideas may materialize, I might also find myself embracing a luddite-like lifestyle in a digitally-unscathed corner of the globe.  Am I off my rocker?

Now that this cat’s fully out of the bag, I’ll append the concept of mesh networks to fortify my previous prediction about Android/Google/Facebook and an omnidigital lifestyle. If you don’t know what mesh networks are, wikipedia does the job so I won’t waste your time explaining it further. Take Rob’s ideas about stochastic patterns in social media success and apply that lens to your life with the immutable trend of people and technology colliding into a heuristic oneness. A Peepknowledgy cloud? A GoogleMesh will enable and augment this concept.

Imagine a world in which someone knew where you are, what you were doing, who you were talking to and what you like to spend your money on. It’s not hard to conceptualize if you’re a believer in an omnipotent deity. But now imagine companies have omnipotence over your life, lifestyle and livelihood. A company that blends all this information into a predictive index of where you’ll go next, who you’ll be around, and – drum roll – again, how and when you like to separate from your disposable income.

• Privacy, Facebook and You

Those links are skewed to shock for effect, but obviously the smoldering issue here is Privacy. Mark my words: Google and Facebook will some day have more actionable, behaviorally-patterned intelligence about you than the CIA could possibly dream of collecting or predicting. How will these new products and technologies weave their way into society while assuaging privacy concerns? I don’t know, but I’m sure it will be a white-hot sociopolitical issue in the not-so-distant future.

As an AI buff, Rob probably has thoughts on the convergence of media and a tech-dependent lifestyle, and what it might mean to AI in business. Rob is hereby tagged if listening and interested in sharing!

Sure the Patriot Act gets buzz, but how and when will privacy concerns finally emerge with respect to consumers, marketers and the platforms that seed and spread messages?

My mom still laments the fact she disregarded my stock picks of MSFT, AOL and INTC a few years ago. By a few years ago I mean 1993 when I thought these 3 companies would change the world as we know it. Thanks to Al Gore’s invention of the internet and the proliferation of desktop PCs as a ubiquitous staple of life in homes and businesses, my predictions came to fruition (with the help of many other game-changing companies and socioeconomic shifts) and my family still jokingly regrets not listening to the insights of an inquisitive 14 year old.

Fast forward a few more years to the dawning of the iPod. While most people way cooler than me donned the white headphones as a fashion statement, I vowed not to own one until it became a more robust hub of one’s digital life and it became something more than a walkman with crappy storage features. Thankfully I had disposable income and an IRA account set up by then, so I nibbled on a few bites of the AAPL. Sure it’s been good to investors since 2001 or so, but sometimes I wonder where I’d be if I had invested as much in the stock as I did in my education and several other distractions since then. Yes, I predicted the iPhone too, but that still seems like a no-brainer to me.

Of course my predictions aren’t always right. Back in 2003 I said Google would be Netscaped in light of their impending IPO. Boy was I way wrong there. I didn’t understand the business like I do today, and honestly I’m not convinced they fully did either. Regardless, this is a round-about way of saying I have plenty of other predictions of how things will shake out with respect to the GOOG. Having been exposed to the enormous base of products and services Google offers for the enterprise, education and individuals, I can clearly see the enormity of the opportunity that awaits a company that benefits from learning and predicting what it’s users know, seek, and share. For me, monetizing behaviors through targeted ads was only the first chapter in this long and luscious fairy tale.

I question the current valuation of GOOG just as much as any other sensible business pundit, but I think the value of the assets lies in the treasure trove of data in the behavioral and – more importantly – commercial patterns of the vast and growing user base. It won’t be about search results a few years from now. It’ll be about leveraging highly focused usage patterns and predictive ‘intelligence’ to drive social and commercial interactions.

The Prediction: In a decade or so, my daughter will one day cruise through the mall with her Android-powered communication device and be prompted to join her friends (triangulated by AmazonGPS) at the food court to redeem her stored value credits from her Facebook profile for a delicious McTaco Lite. Oh and BTW download Miley Cyrus’ co-branded comeback single “Back when fries were legal” via bluetooth when you get there. Those pants are finally on sale at Banana, too.

This prediction is, uh, predicated on the assumption that our privacy continues to be extremely unprivate to companies like Google, Facebook and device OEMs. I’m anxious to see how this all pans out, and this is only my take on the flurry of interesting news recently colliding in the realms of social media and emerging technology. Maybe I’m way off, or maybe it’ll be another lottery ticket in the making if I can find the right places to invest or create a niche business.

How will ubiquitous information and omnipotent technology change your world?