The long anticipated introduction of a Google wiki service as part of the Google apps group of products may finally be ready for launch. Sources suggest that the office 2.0 conference to be held in San Francisco next week could provide the perfect stage for an announcement from Google Spreadsheets product manager Jonothan Rochelle who will be in attendance.
It has been nearly a year since Google acquired Jotspot, the wiki service that will no doubt provide the platform for Googles latest addition to their stable of current applications. Since the acquisition, the Jotspot service has been in a ‘holding pattern’ with no additional subscriptions being accepted. However, those with existing log-in access who have attempted to enter the secure side of the Jotspot site have apparently been served up a somewhat fuzzy looking ‘Google wiki’ logo.
Most people that enjoy the geeky side of life are happy for Google to keep pumping out new, useful and most importantly free services. The big G are masters at understanding what people want (surprise, surprise) and implementing services to meet these needs with accuracy and speed. This is obviously a core strategic competency that Google enjoy.
Interestingly though, I have spoken with a number not so geeky of people who have absolutely no understanding of Googles attempt to break into the market dominated by big Bills Microsoft for so many years. These people are slowly becoming aware of the Google account function, however, this is more as a result of their transition to using the Google talk service.
To my mind, the key question here is how does Google cut through and help global Joe public understand that Google has much more to offer than the best search engine service?
After all, where would Google search be today if it never broke the barrier of only being used by geeky early adopters?
