Googlelabs

Google Labs is the official sandbox into which such off-the-wall ideas as Google Earth, Google Maps and Google Docs were once thrown, to emerge, or "graduate" as Google puts it, as fully-fledged and highly successful aspects of the ever-growing Google brand. Not everything that's tossed into the acid bath of public opinion in Google Labs will survive, but there are some pretty cool things to play around with while they're still there and the chances are that unless you've visited recently, you won't have seen or heard of the latest.

Take, for example, the instant Google store - just sign up for a payment processing service - Google Checkout, naturally, load up a spreadsheet with information about your products - in Google Docs - and fire up the Google Store Widget and in minutes, you'll have your own store front to drop into your blog or website. The pleasures of being a member of the merchant classes are only moments away.

The very latest beta app to hit the lab is Google Scribe, a service that tries to predict and provide the next word after the one you've just typed, giving you the chance to select the one you'd like from a list, or just carry on typing. You can tone it down to just offering suggestions when you hit the Tab key, which is probably a good idea; I started off with the word "now" and then chose all the top suggested words, to get:

"Now watching in My eBay Store maintained by the Reference Center on Environmental Information Regulations"

What I'd had in mind was more along the lines of "now is the winter of our discontent, made glorious summer by this son of York", but the app either doesn't know Shakespeare or it doesn't get asked for, that much.

To be fair, the app has only been on the site for a week, and is no doubt learning as it goes. It may be a solution looking for a problem, but the only way to tell is to let people play with it, which is what Google Labs is about.

In recent times, web apps have been joined by mobile apps for Android phones, so if you're a mobile Google user, you're far from forgotten. Open Spot, for example, is an app which allows people who are leaving parking spots to share their spots with people who are searching for parking. Whatever next?

Many of the apps still in the undergraduate stage have been here for a year or more and haven't hit the mainstream yet, even though they seem well qualified to do so. I like Google Flip, myself, and Google News Timeline, one for the present and one for the past.