On Google's excellent adventure into new territory.

Google has never been satisfied with coloring only inside the lines.

Google is up to it's old ways--and it's detractors seem to be falling into the same reaction as they have before--that of misgivings and apprehension.  The firm announced that it plans to set up in some test cities, ultrafast, fiber optics internet connections that presently don't exist--and, in the judgment of industry players, are not anticipated to even be feasible in the near future.  

Under the plan, the Internet search giant will take its biggest step into supplying Web connections rather than the services that run atop them. Google said it will build and test a few fiber-optic networks that reach homes, aiming to serve 50,000 to 500,000 people. Google executives said the move was designed to accelerate the deployment of faster networks and show off the sort of services that high-speed connections can enable, such as rapid video downloads.

Here's a quick overview of what Google has in mind...

Google said it plans to offer service at a speed of one gigabit per second--100 times faster than what most internet customers have today.  Furthermore, Google plans to  offer open access by letting other providers resell service on its network; this stands in contrast with other telephone and cable providers that are not required to do the same. 

In case you're interested in the rest of the greater story [excerpted above], Jessica Vasellaro and Amy Schatz cover it in the Wall Street Journal yesterday ["Google jolts telecom rivals"]--including how the current players in the field--the ISPs--say that Google is on a fool's mission:  "If this were easy, everybody would be doing it." 

Why might industry rivals be fretting?

Industry reactions are very predictable and telling--especially when they point to Google's unfamiliarity with and inexperience in this business.  But think about what's happened up to now...

• Remember 'way back when Google was just a good search engine, and flirting with the idea of going into the advertising business--the same things could have been--and were--said then.  But look at Google now--as an formidable advertising force, it is eating everyone's lunch!
• Think about what might have been said in industry circles when Google was considering going into photo storing-sharing-enhancing...if Google had listened to it's detractors there wouldn't be Picassa--but only Corel or Adobe or whoever you think makes this their main business.
• If Google had deferred to then-dominant eMail providers, or, now, web browers--after all, there were others that were the experienced, dominant, profitable pioneers; if Google has drawn back we'd still have only AOL or Yahoo [did somebody say Compu-Serve?] or, in the case of Chrome, there'd be just IE [did somebody way Netscape?].  
• If Google had listened to those who would claim that they knew nothing about mapping, scholarship retrieval, video-sharing...I could go on but won't--You get the idea.

Google's done a decent-to-very-good job on most of what it's attempted.  And I think the cable and telecom guys are afraid that Google will actually demonstrate what's achievable when attention and know-how and resources are applied to the problem.  Indeed, I'm not sure but what they are not nearly as pessimistic about Google's success as they are apprehensive that it will actually succeed--and in the process that the internet services delivery bar gets re-set.  Left to their own devices, these players--these predisposed to be complacent, monopolistic players--don't especially want their boat "rocked" by a novice outsider like Google.  

I'm reminded of what Machiavelli knew all along...

There is nothing more difficult to plan, more uncertain of success, or more dangerous to manage than a new order of things.  For he who introduces it makes enemies of all those who derived advantage from the old order and finds but lukewarm defenders among those who stand to gain from the new one.   --The Prince by Nicolo Machiavelli, 1513

I'm betting on Google being successful.  I have no idea how Google'll do it, but I think they will show the world how it can and should be done.  What will happen, in effect, is this:  When Google's finished it will have recalibrated marketplace expectations--by showing that what was previously thought to be impossible is doable--and up-end the status quo in the industry at the same time.  [And let's be clear--when Google pushes the industry to better performance levels--they won't have just acted entirely without self-interest; it will benefit from a better, faster connected internet world!] 

So stay tuned and don't bet the house that the nay-sayers are anything but apprehensive that Google might do just as they claim they will. 

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