Your Primer on Google Fiber

Google Fiber is an amazing example of a company using the principles of innovation to transform an industry.

Google Fiber, for those who don’t know, is a service that provides internet access and television, and it’s currently being debuted in Kansas City; Provo, Utah; and Austin, Texas. It runs at up to 1,000 megabits per second, which means that it’s up to 100 times faster than conventional broadband speeds. This allows for no more awkward lags in your video chatting, annoying time waiting for sites to load, or undesired pauses while you play your favorite online games. You just click and it happens.

Google has a masterful way of initiating dramatic under-the-radar shifts by setting up its offerings as if they were humble little pet projects. Google Fiber debuted in Kansas City with very little fanfare. The company passed it off as an experiment, and at the time downplayed its importance to all media inquiries.

This is not unlike the way Google debuted Android as an open-source operating system for smartphone developers. And recall that Chrome was theoretically just an in-house experiment to try out a more streamlined web browser. Now Android and Chrome are the most widely-used mobile platform and browser on the planet.

Why does a website like Google — which I think we can all agree is doing pretty well as it is — want to undertake such a major shift? Why make such a huge investment in becoming a broadband provider?

Well, for one thing, it removes a middleman between Google, the omnivorous data-gobbling giant, and its users, bringing the site that much closer to people who use its services.

It also sends a clear message to any broadband provider: don’t get comfortable. Perhaps you, or someone you know, live or work in an area that is only wired up by one provider. Your cable keeps breaking down? The prices are too high? You can’t get support? Too bad. They’re the only shop in town.

Google has the will and the way to keep the field from stagnating. And especially with the imminent Comcast-Time Warner merger, a little healthy competition is exactly what the sector needs. And what could be healthier competition than a service offering a basic-tier that actually provides standard internet for free?

The way that Google went about creating Fiber and unveiling it is a great illustration of so many principles: it’s a company anticipating the direction of linear change in an industry, and then running with it. It’s a company not settling for the status quo.

This subtle means of initiating dramatic change is an example of the innovation principle of transformation at work. They’re not just reacting to explicitly stated consumer desires. Google has moved past that Old Golden Rule of Business, “Give your customers what they want,” and is following the New Golden Rule of Business, which I discuss in-depth in my book Flash Foresight:

Give your customers the ability to do what they would want to do if only they knew it was possible.

Google understands that in a world of constant technological change, speed matters. And it matters, first and foremost, because it accelerates traffic to all of the services that Google offered before it launched Google Fiber. The principle of “speed matters” means that the more speed your Internet connection affords you, the more you’ll do with it. And doing more with the internet is just what Google wants: it means more YouTube videos, more e-commerce, more profit.

You could be forgiven for assuming that internet speeds are fast enough as it is. But this isn’t about today’s needs. Google is building for the internet of tomorrow: the immersive internet, the one that services a world where 3D printing is ubiquitous, and the data files are substantially larger than anything we’re used to. Fiber is preactive and anticipatory.

Of course, the innovation of Google Fiber isn’t just a win for Google. It’s a win for your business, too. Start-up entrepreneurs have already been rushing to move to Kansas City neighborhoods to take advantage of the super-high-speed internet available there.

You should start thinking now: how will your business take advantage of ultra-fast internet to create the future instead of reacting to the present? But perhaps the best thing to take away from Fiber is: Don’t react to future change. Build it.

?2014 Burrus Research Inc., All Rights Reserved.

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DANIEL BURRUS is considered one of the world’s leading technology forecasters and innovation experts, and is the founder and CEO of Burrus Research, a research and consulting firm that monitors global advancements in technology driven trends to help clients understand how technological, social and business forces are converging to create enormous untapped opportunities. He is the author of six books including The New York Times best seller Flash Foresight.