TECHNOLOGY

All Hail Google

Google is on an ever expanding, winning streak of innovation.

For years Google has been the most popular search engine on the Internet, leading the verb “to google” to be added to our most recent dictionaries.

With Google Chrome, Google has expanded to compete with Internet Explorer and numerous others as a web desktop browser -- and is currently the 3rd most used web browser in the world.

As for Android, Google’s smart phone software, it has been chosen by so many handset manufacturers that it is on more smart phones than any other system – far surpassing Apple’s iPhone numbers.

And with Google Earth the company has gone even further afield, into the realms normally left to geographers and real estate agents. Anyone can now look up his or her home for a bird’s eye – and more recently street side – view, or comb great cities, the oceans and mountains galore.

Then, just last week, to this expanding Google universe, was added the automobile!

Google released images and a brief PR story on how it has mastered creating a driverless car!!! The vehicle can drive to preset location automatically, staying on the road and making the needed turns – even in traffic – without collision or panic. To keep passengers more at ease – and this is still the test phase after all – a passive backup human sits in the driver’s seat – so if anything seems amiss, he/she can override the system.

So far, Google says, no glitches!

While German, Japanese and American automobile companies have been working on similar robotic cars – Lexus and Ford have production models that can parallel part on their own -- no auto manufacturer to my knowledge has created anything like the Google car yet.

Another Google first? It seems so.

What will this innovative and wide thinking company come up with next?

IBM, Sony and Microsoft are past being leading edge. And Apple seems to be reaching its Zenith as a 2½ note company – iPods, iPhones and the new, but far from unique iPad.

So all hail the new innovation superstar and future world leader (Yes, I am predicting this) – GOOGLE.