EXCLUSIVE - Huge Google Announcement Due: 30th January

In an exclusive tip-off from inside Google, Tech’s Message has learned that the search giant is sitting on a huge announcement that it intends to make public around the date that coincides with the consumer launch of Microsoft Windows Vista, January 30th 2007.
Google has a history of stealing Microsoft’s thunder, for example when Microsoft announced its MSN Search database held records for 5 billion web pages, Google co-announced that it infact held records for 8 billion. Could this be another such event?
Perhaps…
Possibilities
1) The announcement is likely to be the unveiling of a new Google product, the most hotly anticipated of which is the Google OS - a collection of web-based applications that provide free, networked alternatives to Microsoft’s Office suite of applications. Obviously Google Docs and Spreadsheets compete already with Excel and Word, but alternative solutions to spreadsheets, desktop email, frontpage etc could be easily deployed by the Google machine.
2) Another large possibility could be the fabled GDrive. This would be an easy way to consolidate all of a user’s Google files (Google Docs, Spreadsheets, Video etc) in one place, in a desktop environment. The GDrive may also offer a certain number of gigabytes of backup space, though this is less likely given the sheer exploitability factor.
3) Lets not overlook the YouTube acquisition. It’s unlikely anything major would come as a result so soon, but there’s always a chance.
4) There’s also the possibility of a more competative offering in the VoIP market. Google Talk is not a widely used application and was met with a damp response from users, and continues to only be lightly adopted in comparison to Skype. Skype, however, offers the ability to call physical phone lines, something Google talk does not do (yet). Adding “calling out” features would certainly increase the mass appeal and would make the service less of an IM underdog, and more of a competitor to Skype. This would undoubtedly create tension, however. Google has a multi-year partnership agreement with Skype’s parent eBay, to provide text-based adverts on the auction site outside of the United States.
Would a call-out service work from Google? Probably not. Could you imagine having a conversation with a friend about your recent contraction of herpes, only to get a automated announcement on the phone from the “Google system” about related anti-herpes offers from Google advertisers? No, certainly not a good system. Google would struggle to profit from a voice-based system but keeping track of all your conversations would, in a way, organise your data and would therefor be within Google’s manifesto of organising the world’s data. I leave the thinking to you.
5) A blog on ZDnet gave some insights on potential Google releases in 2007, one of which is claimed to be 100% certain. That is, an enterprise version of Google Apps For Your Domain. Currently the system offers Google applications to run as if hosted on your own website’s domain, but is actually hosted on Google’s servers. Various features are expected with such a product and you can read some insights here.
6) The announcement may be something less interesting but no less notable, such as Google’s GMail finally coming out of beta after almost 3 years. The site has recently allowed signing up functionality (previously, new users had to be invited by existing users). Whether this is a sign or not that the mail service is approaching its “finished” status, I wouldn’t like to say. It wouldn’t be huge news but it’d at least beat Windows Live Mail to the punch (that said, WLM hasn’t been in beta for anything like as long as GMail).
In Closing
This news should be treated as a rumour, but a strong one, and from a trusted source.
Personally, I want a gPod with a gFox browser and integrated gTooth and g-Fi for sharing my songs wirelessly with other gPods. To avoid Apple lawsuits, Google may want to annoy Microsoft more, as referred to above, by calling it the gUne (Goon). Either way, I want one. It won’t happen, but I want one.