What Will Be Next From Google?

Yesterday Google announced that web users can now get current weather conditions and a forecast by typing, for example, [weather Chicago]. This is the latest Google feature released this year, the others being Google Maps, Google Movies, and Google Video.

So what other new services will we see from Google this year and beyond? I'm going to play the role of Nostradamus here and make some predictions:

1) Google Travel: I have no doubt in my mind that Google will release its own travel service, to the detriment of Expedia, Orbitz, and Travelocity. I envision a Google version of Kayak.com - a one-stop, search-based aggregator of flight, hotel, and car rental information. Like Froogle, Google Travel will directly link users to provider websites, allowing consumers to bypass the fees charged by the current leading travel websites.

2) G-Bay: I predict that Google will one day release a service which will allow one to search through auction postings from all of the various auction sites - eBay, Overstock Auctions, Amazon Auctions, Yahoo! Auctions, and so on - from one central site. A central order book, of sorts.

The implications of such a website would be far-reaching. Most importantly, it would weaken eBay's network effect, and hence weaken the de facto monopoly eBay has on the online auction business. This would open the door for new competition, thus reducing eBay's pricing power and lowering transaction costs for internet auction services across the board.

3) Google Jobs: I predict that Google will unveil a job search service at some point in the future. This service will make worldwide job listings searchable through one central site.

Ultimately, I believe that Google has the potential to weaken and even usurp the roles of many of the most successful internet websites because it can offer users (1) better accessibility to pertinent information, due to Google's core competency in search and knack for innovation and design, (2) at a lower cost, because Google cuts out the middle man by making its services entirely ad-supported.

Full disclosure: I do not own shares of Google.