Sometimes it can be very interesting to look back into the past. As an historian I know that you can get new insights from looking back. With 2010 just starting and many bloggers looking forward, a view back in time can give you a lot of insight.
This video below Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are on stage at the TED conference, back in 2004. A very insightful video, look at it and then I will tell you what I noticed.
Seen it? Have you noticed anything in particular? Except for that Brin and Page are almost seven years younger and that the globe with all the searches looks fantastic? And that both Larry and Sergey apparently went to Montessori-school. Which could explain the way they run Google: open, don’t be evil and the 20% rule.
Here’s a hint: look at the products they discuss:
- Orkut: de social networktool van Google
- The Deskbar: a sort of Google toolbar, only in the bottom of the screen
- Google Answers
- Froogle
- Blogger
- Google Adsense, with a feature in it which shows ‘related searches’
Most of these products were only just launched or about to launch in that period of time. And as you may noticed, most of them didn’t make it.
So what can we learn from this? Maybe that in five years we will look the same way at ‘products’ like realtime search or Wave…?
