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Google CES Announcement More Than Google Cube?

So as you’ve already probably heard, Google is supposed to make some sort of announcement on a consumer based application at the next Consumer Electronics Show in Law Vegas in a couple days. Some have speculated that Google will announce its own “Google Cube” which runs a modified version of Linux.

When I first heard that Larry Page, one of the founders of Google, was going to give a keynote speech at the CES this year I was a little surprised. After all, the show is CONSUMER electronics which Google doesn’t have. Sure Google itself is a consumer based product, but they don’t offer electronics.

This of course led to speculation about what Google could be premiering at the show. After all, if a founder of Google is giving a keynote speech at a consumer electronics show he must be promoting or debuting some form of consumer electronics right?

So then, of course the first thing everyone thought was “Google Computer” which kinda makes sense. There’s been rumblings of a Google OS for months, if not years now – a customized version of Linux which also includes all Google’s existing software products.

But today Google squashed that rumor like a bug. No Google computers and no deal to sell them via WalMart.

And really, it makes sense. Google hasn’t yet supported Linux in any of its apps, so why would it secretly build them now? I mean, Google is famous for beta testing the heck out of everything. Do we really think they’d release a bunch of Linux applications on a Linux computer without beta tests?

So if not a computer, what then?

Well, there was also talk about a Hybrid multimedia center. One that would allow a Google machine to become a gateway between the Internet and another device like a TV that would allow the owner to easily manage many different forms of media, from videos to movie downloads to songs.

But again I find this implausible. Google will not sell any such unit that hasn’t been fully tested yet. And since I’ve never heard of such a unit, or even the software being available to test, I don’t think we’ll see it in the near future.

Really, the whole idea of a Google OS powered system of any kind is out there. While Google could have aspirations for such a system, I see little movement by Google in this direction. After all, one would think that if Google were to release a *nix based system they’d already have some software that would run on the system and that just isn’t the case (trust me, I know as I use Linux at home and have been anxiously waiting for Google to release Linux products).

So what else could there be?

Well, there’s speculation that the announcement could also be Google pay-per-view video. A way for users to pay to video downloads.

Again, a good idea, but again, I doubt this is the case.

Because again, this is a product that Google hasn’t tested. They don’t have a way to process payments, so I would expect before any big announcement like this they would again want to beta test the heck out of a payment processing system before making a worldwide announcement. After all, look what happened to Google Analytics when it became freely available.

And really, who would pay for a video download on Google when you can use Google to find all sorts of P2P file downloads like bittorrent to get the exact same video for free?

So what will Google announce?

Well, I think it will be much more low key and actually be an announcement they’ve already made (in a way).

I think they will announce their partnership with Lexar and the ability to offer Google apps via the popular USB flash drive.

At the same time, however, I think they will also announce that they will expand the current product offerings by the end of the year to include such applications as a portable desktop application, web browser and more.

And really, these wouldn’t be a stretch for Google.  Others have already developed portable desktop applications such as Firefox, GAIM an IM client, NVU a web page editor, very similar to Microsoft FrontPage, and even Open Office.  Even easier is a complete Portable Suite containing all these and more.

Will Google debut a new “Google Cube?” Not likely. How about PPV video? My feeling is not.

But there are other possibilities. Including merely pushing existing consumer products, like Google Desktop, Google Earth and even Gmail. These are all consumer products which have been tested.

In any case, Friday will be an interesting day for Google watchers.

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Rob Sullivan is a SEO Consultant and Writer for Textlinkbrokers.com