Google’s Latest Efforts Test the Open Waters

In the span of just two weeks, Google has launched two major open source efforts with a ragtag group of partners, both without any obvious or immediate payoff for Google itself.

It’s a classic move: A giant company, looking to dominate a market where it has little presence, spins out an ostensibly collaborative project that it hopes will give it a foot in the door. IBM, Sun, Novell and even Microsoft have all played the open source card this way in the past, with varying degrees of success. In Google’s case, the potential payoff is huge, albeit in the distant future, and the immediate risks are low. In the best-case scenario, Google gains entrance to lucrative mobile and social-networking markets. Worst case? Its collaborative projects fade into irrelevance with little damage to Google’s reputation or bottom line.

By Bryan Gardiner

Full Story: http://www.wired.com/techbiz/it/news/2007/11/google_open