The Internet of Things

Not so long ago, I thought that I had an original idea. I had been designing micro-payment systems based on RFID or Radio Frequency ID chips. I got the bright idea that if everything had an RFID tag, then it would be identifiable and one could google it. You would have an internet of things, instead of just web pages. A couple of days ago, I saw that the Chinese are trying to do this in Shanghai and beat the world on this idea.

It would be an amazing concept. A PDA (personal digital assistant) or iPhone would have an RFID reader just like the one pictured in the upper left above. As you passed a tavern or a bar, you could google it automagically to check out the ambiance. You pass a utility pole with a tag on it. It would tell you what utilities it carried. In the grocery store, you google the apples to find out where they were grown and when they were picked.

The meat that you eat would have a tag, and you would know the cow's name and where it was raised. If you pass a snazzy car, it would tell you how many horsepower it has and how fast it goes. A picture frame has a tag on it, and you could Google the identities of the people in the picture.

Everything from the Eiffel Tower to specially engineered insects that eat other noxious insects would have a tag that you could Google. It would be much more fun surfing the internet of things when you go out for a drive.

With the internet of things, people could even Google your location. Although if they see you are on Facebook, it would be unnecessary because they would know that you are at work.

The Next Big Thing for Google

I was reading my online news source yesterday, and an article about Google said that it was still basically a one man show, and that was a search engine. The article idly mused on what next for Google.

Ignoring the fact that Google owns the internet, has become a verb, noun, adverb and adjective, and also ignoring that there is a Google phone, and blogs and marketplace and forums et cetera et ceteri, there is one aspect where Google can be the most helpful digital application for now and for ever and ever Amen. And I have the idea. The idea is GOOGLE OPINION.

Google's basic premise is that the crowd is always right. However, sometimes there is not enough facts, or facts don't exist to definitively answer a question. Everyone has an opinion, however some people's opinions are righter and smarter and better than other people's opinion. So Google should get an opinion.

They should develop a context engine with inference powers. Then they would troll their page records and draw inferences by popular vote. Then Google would have an opinion.

For example, questions like "Are tattoos tasteful?" could be answered. Other questions on which I would like to hear a Google opinion are:

• Is the death penalty useful?
• Can psychopaths be rehabilitated?
• Are most religions a bunch of bunk?
• What if there were no rhetorical questions?
• Is there justification for Justin Beiber and his ilk in an enlightened society?
• If there is a resurrection of the body, can I get my money back from the undertaker?
• How does a real estate company sell its office building without causing confusion?

As you can see, Google Opinion would be a boon to society. And as for Google, when your bot comes trolling tonight, and you think that this is a good idea, you know where to send money. You have my email address, and my blogs, and all of my info. I know that your corporate motto is "Don't be evil", so I trust that you will send me money for my idea, but you did cozy up to the Chinese for a while and did some censoring.

So I am not quite sure about Google's intention with them having all of my info and not stealing my idea. However, I did a test, and in spite of 165,000 references, Google still doesn't know Satan's last name, so I guess that my information is safe for now. I think that I will ask Google for an opinion on that as well.