What is Google up to?

I always try to keep up with technology trends and news – and anything Google – as well as marketing and design. Social media is a great way to do that by following high quality news and blogs sites specific to your interests. So while on Facebook reading another article about Google, I noticed three interesting moves by Google in a very short time span. In just the past few weeks Google has updated its logo to remove serifs – a move far overdue given modern design trends, launched a slick router with no antennae, and now Chrome’s updates are attempting to help kill off Flash.

As an IBM-compatible and open source fan since I was a kid tinkering with PC’s, I’ve never loved Apple due to their walled-garden philosophy, but I respect their (read: Steve Jobs’) love for design and marketing. So after reading the latest news, I saw similarities and drew comparisons to Apple. Fonts and logos have been mostly sans-serif for a long time now, it’s just simpler and cleaner, much like the design trends Apple has lead the way in. And Apple disabled Flash in the iPhones years ago as it hogs resources and just doesn’t work well. More importantly it’s a security hole with vulnerabilities.

Now Google hasn’t been a company completely ignoring design and oblivious to design trends. While it didn’t take off I thought Google Glass was very sleek and well designed, and the box was Apple-esque in its packaging design. But on the other hand the Google autonomous car is not quite as nice as the Tesla. However, these three pieces of recent news came right on the heels of the restructuring of Google into Alphabet with the new CEO and it’s worth taking a pause to consider what direction they’re heading. It will be interesting to see what happens in just the next few months. I’m a big fan of Google and look forward to new products, innovations and now it seems a stronger concern for design; but I hope they don’t become too much like Apple. Yet with the other piece of news about Google’s interest in a royalty-free video codec, it seems they are sticking to their strong history of innovation and bettering technology for everyone over locking down potential revenue streams and cornering markets.