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<div align=justify>For a long time, Google was boring.

It bought companies and buried them. It released new products, like Buzz and Wave, that nobody cared about.

Larry Page started to change that when he reclaimed control of the company last spring.

He cut a bunch of failures, put new leaders in charge, launched the company's first ever successful social product, Google+, and dropped more than $12 billion on a phone manufacturer, Motorola.

Some of these ideas might turn out to be stupid or not work out the way he expected. But at least they're not boring.

Page says Google is no longer a "search company." He says its model is: invent wild thing that will help humanity, get them adopted by users, profit, and then use the corporate structure to keep inventing new things.

So what does Larry have up his sleeve this year?
 
'''''An Android tablet that doesn't suck'''''

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt tipped this one last month, telling an Italian newspaper that Google will "market a tablet of the highest quality" in the next six months.

So far, most Android tablets have flopped (except for Amazon's Kindle Fire, which is only Android way deep down and has no connections to Google services), and the platform is infuriatingly buggy and unreliable.

That has to change. So Google will probably to take an approach like it has with the Nexus Android phones, working closely with one hardware partner to create the ideal Android tablet.

'''''A pay TV service'''''

This one has been rumored since last fall.

Google is moving all the pieces into place -- Motorola can provide the set top boxes, Google TV is the software, and the fiber optic network in Kansas City provides the pipe. It's even got a great original content channel in YouTube.

Now all it needs are some big content deals like the cable TV providers have.

'''''Billions to spend on video content'''''

Last year, Google was close to dropping $4 billion to buy Hulu, but couldn't quite reach terms -- Google wanted to be sure it could extend Hulu's content deals for longer than Hulu's owners were willing to offer them.

So why not license the content directly from media companies just like Comcast and every cable company does today? Sure, it would cost billions, but Google would be able to bolster a lot of its newer products, from Android tablets to Google TV, and would have a whole new advertising business to mine.

'''''A cutting edge Android phone that sells for next to nothing'''''

Back when Google hatched the idea for Android, the company envisioned giving away phones for free then making it up on ad sales. But the carriers and handset makers had other plans, and Google was reduced to their demands to get distribution.

But Android is established now -- consumers know the brand and there are hundreds of thousands of apps for it. Once Google owns Motorola, it could take another shot at this dream by building a cutting-edge handset, reserving all the best new Android features and Google services (like video) for it, and subsidizing the heck out of it to undercut the iPhone and every other competitive Android phone on the market.

Google's Android partners would hate it, but the carriers might not mind -- as long as it would get even more people consuming huge amounts of data.

'''''Retail stores'''''

Last year, Google opened its first retail outlet in London. It was just a small "store within a store," but that's exactly how Microsoft started its own retail push a couple years ago.

What would they sell? Android phones and tablets, Google TVs, and maybe even Chromebooks -- if anybody wanted to buy them.

'''''Google+ everywhere'''''

Google got some flak this week for starting to feature Google+ pages more prominently in search results, but that's not going to stop the company from putting Google+ anywhere and everywhere.

By the end of 2012, look for Google+ to be in Google TV (imagine Hangouts on a big screen), Gmail (it's a no-brainer to make it easy to add contacts to Circles and vice-versa), and Google advertising products (allowing advertisers to target ads more accurately based on Google+ profiles, connections, and interests).

There may even be a special version of Google+ for the enterprise, allowing employees to communicate with coworkers the same way they interact with their friends.

'''''A real enterprise push'''''

Yesterday, Google named a woman with serious enterprise chops to its board of directors -- Diane Greene, who cofounded VMware. 

This could be the year that Google finally puts serious development resources behind Google Docs to turn it into a real competitor, rather than a mere annoyance, to Microsoft's core business. It could also surprise by acquiring some of the new crop of cloud-based enterprise startups like Box, Yammer, Huddle, or the like.

'''''Free Chromebooks'''''

Chromebooks are a flop in the consumer market -- they've only sold 30,000 units this year, according to some reports.

But last year at Google I/O, Google presented a plan for Chromebooks that almost makes sense: sell them to cost-conscious enterprises, like schools and government agencies. They're easy to use, have low zero support costs, and Google guarantees hardware upgrades.

If Google really wants to get serious about taking business away from Microsoft, it could give the Chromebooks away for free as an incentive to switch to Apps.

'''''Self-driving cars -- really'''''

Google's self-driving cars have a team of at least 50 working on them, and the company is starting to talk to major car manufacturers.

In 2012, we might actually see these cars -- or at least hear Google explain when and how we can get a ride in one. Will we have to buy them? Rent them? Use them like a taxi service?

'''''More ad campaigns'''''

Remember when Google never advertised? That started to change last year with billboards for Chrome, and especially toward the end of the year with a couple of TV ads for Google+, like this one featuring the Muppets.

Look for the advertising to pick up in 2012 as Google completes the Motorola deal and looks to push its own hardware.
</div>
''Taken from http://www.businessinsider.com''
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