Shooting for the Moon, Google Hopes to Own the Future

[Commentary] Look at the technology landscape today and what do you see? A few companies -- Facebook, Yahoo, Apple, Twitter and Google -- competing for the same sorts of revenue: advertising, search, location and some mobile hardware. Now look into the future of the technology landscape and what do you see? I’ll answer that for you: Google, Google and Google.

Over the last year alone Google has acquired more than a dozen tech hardware outfits working on projects that might seem crazy today, but could be part of our not-too-distant future. Yet many of its competitors seem to be stuck in the present. Look at Facebook, Yahoo and Twitter’s acquisitions, all of which have purchased a lot of software, design, advertising and content companies. No robots. No self-driving cars. No wind turbines. It’s unclear where Apple fits into all of this — the company, is, after all, better at keeping secrets than the National Security Agency. Apple also clearly has the money to compete with Google. But if Apple is working in secret on its own robot army and futuristic universe, Google is building for the future in public.