A blogger discovered evidence of several new Google features yesterday that hint at the company’s product direction.
While investigating a Google subdomain, Tony Ruscoe found the following experimental new Google services: Google Events, Google Guess, Google Online Assessment, Google Real Estate Search, Google RS2, Mobile Marketplace, Local and Weaver.
Ruscoe found the products by logging into a tester account, which is apparently used to test the development of new Google products.
The account also listed known Google products Writely and Talk, and something called WiFi, which may refer to Google’s Wi-Fi network in Mountain View.
One of the unknown product names, Mobile Marketplace, apparently reaffirms Google’s plans to concentrate more on the handset marketplace. CEO Eric Schmidt said during the company’s last earnings call that Google would be focusing on the mobile market because of its high growth rate.
On his blog, Ruscoe speculated that Google RS2 was a statistical machine translation system, since the link he found pointed to Google Translate. As for Weaver, Ruscoe wrote, “most suspect it’s going to be some kind of Medical Scrapbook.”
WiFi probably refers to Google’s wireless access plans. Google is currently testing Wi-Fi access is Mountain View, Calif., where its headquarters is located. A tester of that network recently posted about her experience on Om Malik’s GigaOm.
As for Writely, the product team recently announced they were working to move the product to a Google Account sign-in.
Image courtesy Tony Ruscoe and Google Blogoscoped.
