Google, Give Us a Hint: Is Chrome or Android the Future?

To put it mildly, Google has lots of irons in the fire. It tries out lots of things, which is smart, and kills things that don't make any sense, which is wise. But Google has also developed a bit of a reputation for throwing projects under the bus. The decision to end Google Reader had fans of the RSS service up in arms — a backlash that seemed to channel pent-up frustration about the collection of initiatives relegated to the "Google Graveyard."

Google is inscrutable. That's a quality a company must have in über competitive industries, where exploiting small advantages and finding brilliant ideas hiding in plain sight can make the difference between becoming Palm and, well, Google. But a company also needs to keep reminding customers what the value proposition is in return for loyalty and trust — especially when products you've become at least somewhat dependant upon just go away.

Google — like any company — needs to keep the competition guessing. But it also has an obligation to keep its customers from guessing.

It's a tall order. In a recent Reuters column, I scratched my head about the conundrum. "What is Google Doing?" I asked, a play on the title of the 2011 book by Jeff Jarvis, "What Would Google Do?" Jarvis took me task a bit, but I think we're on the same side. Where we part is the extent to which Google's roadmap is or needs to be clear to outsiders. I think it isn't clear, and I don't think Google would weaken its competitive position by lifting the veil a bit more.

I was hoping that Google's annual developer's conference two weeks ago would be the perfect venue to reveal more about how its wide-ranging projects — self-driving cars, Google Glass, the mobile phone business it acquired by purchasing Motorola Mobility — are part of some grand unifying theory. Or, that Google would at least drop some big hints.

It wasn't exactly to be. Google I/O was more a status update (and the greatest concentration of Google Glass in the short history of this beta product).

There's a lot I'd like to know about what's going on in the Plex, but if I could be granted only one wish it would be to know the future of the Google's two operating systems: Will Chrome and Android merge to become a single OS powering all the smartphones, tablets and laptops in the Google ecosystem?

At the D11 conference this week, newly anointed Android Czar Sundar Pichai has another chance to clear this up. Pichai (like most Googlers) doesn't show up in public often. But in an exclusive interview with Wired's Steven Levy before the I/O conference, Pichai left a couple of doors tantalizingly open.

Asked by Levy if it was "confusing" to have two operating systems, Pichai dodged: "Users care about applications and services they use, not operating systems. Very few people will ask you, 'Hey, how come MacBooks are on Mac OS-X and iPhone and iPad are on iOS? Why is this?'"

Pichai is right, to a point: We don't care — except to the extent that the experience is unnecessarily different — which is exactly why Apple is importing to the desktop some features that debuted on iOS, like Messages, Notes/Reminders, Game Center, and AirPlay. Even Siri may be coming to the desktop.

But pressed in that Wired interview, Pichai did take the bait. Asked if supporting two operating systems was a resource hog, he said:

We want to do the right things at each stage, for users and developers. We are trying to find commonalities. On the browser layer, we share a lot of stuff. We will increasingly do more things like that. And maybe there’s a more synergistic answer down the line.

It's a tall order. But it would be elegant, and unprecedented. And it feels within reach: I'm no engineer, but your task would seem more approachable than for Apple or Microsoft, whose desktop operating systems derive from the requirements of local desktop computing.

So, here's my one wish when you hit the stage at the D11 nerdprom, Mr. Pichai: Throw us a bone. Tell us that you will create a Google OS, and what the road ahead looks like.

There's a lot going on at Google. Let's make one thing simple.

Read more coverage of D11 from Influencers:

• Esther Dyson: From 3D Printers to Fancy Swag, What I Expect to See at D11
• Chris Fralic: What Makes D So Great?
• Ilya Pozin: The Tough Questions Tech CEOs Need to be Asked
• Horace Dediu: What I Want Apple CEO Tim Cook Talk About
• Rita King: When Will Twitter Monetize TV?
• Dave Kerpen: 6 Secrets to Better Networking at D11, or Any Conference

Image: A Chromebook Pixel

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