Google Space

Google may already be dominant on the web but now it is stretching its wings to the physical world as well. Google Space, at Terminal One of London's Heathrow airport, will allow people to log onto the net and check e-mail while they wait for flights. For Google, the space will be used to test its myriad product launches on the public.

"We see it as a huge focus group," said Lorraine Twohill, Google's European director of marketing. "For many of our users, we have always been something in their computers and they have never actually met us," she said. [via bbc]

Google will also have staff on hand to actually monitor the guinea pigs..err..the users to see how they use Google's products. I think this is a pretty good idea not cos of what it is but where it is! If you think about it...people who browse the web at airports or quickly check their mail usually have other stuff on their minds meaning that interfaces that are even slightly difficult to use cause annoyance. Think about it from a pressure point of view. The more pressure a person is put under (time, resource, etc) the more they tend to start using their natural instinct.

Now that is what the whole experiment will be about. By analysing (most probably by some AI...the human helpers are just for show) they can get exact figures for people on the move of how many words per line for example should be shown to a busy user...the amount of time spent per page...how many emails they read in 5 mins, etc. I think this is all to do with the mobile space...the way it links is the time and busy factor. By getting good data on how people respond when in a hurry they can tailor their next mobile solution (mail, maps, google local) to a much better degree giving users exactly what they want.