Google is decentralizing

Monday, February 11, 2002 by Dave Winer.

Tea leaves 

I love to read tea leaves.

A few weeks ago I read PC World interview with Google CEO Eric Schmidt, I read it quickly, and a few hours later a thought popped into my head -- Google is moving to the desktop.

Today there's an announcement. Google is not moving to the desktop, leaving an interesting void, but they are moving to the Local Area Network, with the Google Appliance. It's hardware and software, totally turnkey, configured through a Web browser, it does for local information what the centralized Google does for the World Wide Web.

Constant innovation 

Google is on a roll. Last year they did a massive upgrade, and changed the way the Web worked, tapping into the news-gathering capabilities of the weblog community. Now by decentralizing, they can, for the enterprise, but not for individuals, eliminate the seam between information on the Internet and local information.

We see an obvious opportunity to connect our decentralized content management product, Radio 8, with Google's decentralized search, to bootstrap an even more responsive Internet, one where the search engine index instantaneously reflects what's going on in the world.

A hearty Bravo! to Google for continuing to push the envelope.

Dave Winer