With its current set of applications, Google has provided a platform for
a network of players to develop and launch search related services. This
is made possible as a result of Google’s applications being developed as
modules with public APIs that can be called by third party service
providers. A major benefit in developing such modular components with
standard interfaces is what is known as combinatorial innovation. The
idea is that every now and then a set of standardized parts or components
comes along, triggering a wave of experimentation by innovators who
tinker with the many combinations of these components. The result:
a wealth of new products built on the newly available components. Some of
these products are novel even to the designer of the component!
This is the same idea on which webservices arrived. However, due to a
lack of standardization, it has not really taken off. Google is
establishing these standards through natural experiments that are taking
place right now. Through these experiments, Google may have invented the
process and protocol to be followed for creating and listing web
services. Although, in its current state, Google is experimenting
exclusively with search related services, there is nothing to prevent it
from providing a forum to launch other types of applications.