Data Processing: Making Money Web

The Social Analyst is a column by Mashable Co-Editor Ben Parr, where he digs into social media trends and how they are affecting companies in the space.

When Google first announced Chrome OS, the questions surrounding it were numerous and the expectations were off the charts. Many wondered whether it was Google’s attempt to destroy Microsoft or if it would cannibalize Android instead.

It’s more than a year later, and Google has finally unveiled Chrome OS. While it’s not ready for prime time quite yet, the search giant has created a frenzy with the release of the CR-48 test notebook.

Still, the questions remain. Who is Google targeting with Chrome OS? Why does it have both Android and Chrome OS? What are the company’s strategic goals?

While some critics have been attacking the flaws in the OS (forgetting it’s still incomplete) or predicting its demise, they’re not addressing the bigger picture. Chrome OS is just one piece of a master plan focused on shifting the world even further onto the web and satisfying the Google Revenue Equation.

Google’s Strategy With Chrome OS

When Chrome OS was first announced, I argued that the cloud-based operating system didn’t need to outsell Windows in order to achieve its goals.

Here’s what I said back then:

“As long as you’re on the web, Google wins. So we need to stop framing the Google-Microsoft battle in the context of ‘Chrome OS vs. Windows,’ because Google will not win a straight up battle. And guess what? That’s not Google’s goal. We need to frame it in the larger context of the Google Revenue Equation and how much time we spend on the web.”

The Google Revenue Equation, as I defined it back then, is “Revenue = Amount of Time on the Web.” For every minute we spend on the web and every page we visit, Google makes more money from its vast advertising network.

A year later, I still believe I hit the nail on the head. Chrome OS completely eliminates the desktop and challenges you to only use the web to get things done. And you know what? In almost every case, there’s a web app to replace a program in your Windows Start Menu or Mac OS X Dock. I’ve been able to do almost everything on my CR-48 that I can on my PC or Macbook Pro. And for those few things I haven’t been able to accomplish, there will probably be an app in the Chrome Web Store that will eventually do it.

Chrome OS is an attempt to condition us to rely on the web rather than the desktop for our needs. But that’s just one of many avenues Google has for accomplishing its goals.

Getting Us on the Web, One Product at a Time

Chrome OS. The Chrome Web Store. Cloud Connect. Message Continuity. Google TV. Google Buzz. Android. All of these Google products are designed to get people to use the web for longer each day. They are helping push people to the online cloud, where Google dominates.

Android is Google’s vision of a web-centric mobile world. Google TV is its attempt to get you to browse the web on the living room screen. And Chrome OS is about weaning you off the desktop and getting you to use the browser exclusively.

For the vast majority of people, Chrome OS will satisfy their needs. Need to edit a photo? There’s an app for that. Want to play Solitaire? There’s an app for that too. Eventually there will be plenty of options for watching your favorite movies as well.

Because the OS is free and open-source though, we bet that devices running it will be a great deal cheaper than their Windows counterparts, making them attractive buys for price-conscious consumers. Even if Chrome OS flops in the market when it debuts in mid-2011, it’s still a relatively small investment for an experiment that has big potential for the company’s bottom line.

Google’s entire business model is based on getting you to stay on the Internet. If it can find a way to get you online for a minute longer every day, it’s a no-brainer for the company. Chrome OS is just a component of a bigger strategy to keep us eternally connected to the web.

InDinero

Billed as the Mint.com for small businesses, InDinero launched in early July and is a real-time financial dashboard for companies. The Y Combinator-backed startup is led by 20-year-old Jessica Mah, who got the idea for InDinero while she was selling items on eBay in middle school.

"I had no idea how much money I was actually making," Mah told us in July. Mah, who is obviously some kind of super-genius, graduated from UC Berkley's computer science program this year at the age of 19 and promptly began putting the finishing touches on the Web app, which closely resembles Mint.com.

InDinero is free for up to 50 transactions per month, $29.95 for up to 500, and $99.95 for an unlimited number of monthly transactions.

Rapportive

Rapportive may not have been designed specifically for small businesses, but it sure makes life for pretty much any business owner easier. The Gmail plugin creates a widget that sits to the right of any open email message and culls data from the Web to tell you exactly who miscellaneousperson@whateverbusiness.com really is.

Depending on how readily available such details are, Rapportive will pull an avatar image, name, job title, recent tweets and links to any active social networking profiles the person may have. You can even connect with somebody on LinkedIn via Rapportive, without leaving Gmail.

Next page: No longer is there a barrier for even the smallest of businesses to begin accepting credit cards where ever they may be...

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Thursday, December 23, 2010

Making Money Web

Google’s Strategy With Chrome OS

Getting Us on the Web, One Product at a Time

InDinero

Rapportive

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