Google PowerMeter sounds like quite an odd name for an online application, but as it happens it also seems quite an odd application for them to make. The purpose of it is to allow people to monitor how much electricity they are using in their household or business via a handy webpage. It sounds quite a novel idea, but it relies heavily on companies producing devices that can provide the data - something which no hardware manufacturer has yet agreed to.
"We can't build this product all by ourselves," said Kirsten Olsen Cahill, a program manager at Google.org, the company's corporate philanthropy arm. "We depend on a whole ecosystem of utilities, device makers and policies that would allow consumers to have detailed access to their home energy use and make smarter energy decisions."
"Smart grid" is the new buzz phrase in the electric business, encompassing a variety of approaches that involve more communication between utility operators and components of the grid, including transformers, power lines, customer meters and even home appliances like dishwashers.
If no hardware manufacturers take it up then it won't be that useful, and even more importantly it means it will be very hard for you to track your electrical usage accurately unless you replace all electrical appliances (including light fixtures) with devices that support PowerMeter. I can't really see this one taking off and more than automated homes has - it will only be for a very small niche market.
The second of the two new Google products is Google Sync. The technology behind this one was licensed from Microsoft's ActiveSync and is being used to allow Google to synchronise contacts from Gmail and Google Calendar events to iPhones and Windows Mobile devices. It still has a few issues to work out, but hopefully they should have these resolved soon. For pushing the data onto the devices they use SyncML meaning that they will eventually be able to include the ActiveSync feature on other Symbian based handsets in the future.
