Monday, Mar 8, 2010    Text size: 

"In three years time, desktops will be irrelevant," Google Europe chief John Herlihy said at the recent Digital Landscapes conference in Dublin, adding, "In Japan, most research is done today on smart phones, not PCs."

Herlihy underscored the increasing importance of mobile technology and the pivotal role it will play in Google's future — and in the future of global communications overall, including the positive impact it will have on evolving business trends.

"Mobile makes the world's information universally accessible," Herlihy told the audience. "Because there's more information and because it will be hard to sift through it all, that's why search will become more and more important. This will create new opportunities for new entrepreneurs to create new business models — ubiquity first, revenue later."

This tactic of quick-to-market capitalization requires a nimble corporate culture.

"We seek ubiquity and then pray for luck," Herlihy offered. "We learn from bad decisions. If something is wrong, we kill it as soon as possible, take everybody out and move onto a different project as soon as possible."

According to Herlihy, Google allows nothing to get in the way of giving value to consumers.

"Customers today have more choices and are more aware of our competitors' offerings," Herlihy said. "Unless we can serve them 24/7, 365 days a year, competitors will eat our lunch. There is a level of paranoia there."

With Google's increasing emphasis on the mobile marketplace, "mobility" is what the company will soon be all about — and the benefits for modern adult marketers could bring in a renewed round of industry entrepreneurship.

"At the end of the day it's the customer who owns the cash," he concluded. "That's why we construct our organization to deliver value. The underlying framework is to make it easier for people to do business, solve problems and move on."