Just been reading an excellent blog post over at SEOMoz about the 4 biggest threats that Google faces. Fascinating stuff.  To summarise, the article reckons it could be one of the following:

1. An existing search competitor wins back it’s share
2. A startup becomes the new golden child of search
3. Web search fractures into verticals
4. Traditional Web Search is Replaced by a More Compelling Information Retrieval Model

But what about Facebook?

If I were Google I’d be more concerned about the sustained and continuing growth of Facebook and the tightening grip it is having on people’s lives.

Regular Facebook users can completely immerse themselves in the Facebook world for hours on end (even if this time can consist of cyberstalking, running farms or playing at being a Mafia boss) and it strikes me that if Facebook can develop a useful, reliable method of search from within that extends outwith it’s own network then they’ll be well on their way to becoming a dominant force in search and a real challenger to Google.

Facebook already comes ready-rolled with a search box.  Imagine the “convenience” for it’s users if this search box was their gateway to information on anything they want, rather than just a tool that gets used to track down friends?

There’s also several concerns over privacy relating to Facebook but imagine how focused  search results could be served if they were not only based on what was out there but on every single piece of data that you’ve added over the years to your Facebook account.

Scary, or simply progress?

Regular visitors to this blog will be aware of how interested I am in the various online mapping systems that are out there.  This time last year, we took a first look at how Glasgow looked on Google Street View and hypothesised about where Google would go next.

Fasten your seatbelts folks…Bing have launched a demo version of their new Bing Streetside mapping system and it looks awesome.  It’s probably going to be in beta for some time – at present they’ve just got Vancouver and Seattle added but the features look amazing.  Stuff like being able to look up at the sky and see star formations from any location and the use of Photosynth technology to integrate Flickr photos in Bing Maps could only just be the start…  In turn, this makes it a much richer experience than the ’vanilla’ Google Streetview.

Downside (and with Microsoft, I guess there always has to be one) is that the current demo only works if you’ve got a Windows machine….

Don’t let that deter you from checking out the clip…

Technology…dontcha just love it?

Stumbled across this latest user interface that’s been developed by Oblong Industries.  I guess one of the reasons it looks so cool and similar to the sort of gesture computer technology that was used in Minority Report is because the developer, John Underkoffler, actually got nabbed by the film’s producers to advise on the technology during filming.

Oblong reckon we’ll all be using computers like this within five years time.  Not sure where I’ll be able to fit it into my office though…

g-speak overview 1828121108 from john underkoffler on Vimeo.