January
Google kicked off the year unveiling the Nexus One (and its ill-fated store), and providing books to the makers of the Alex eReader device. The company shared a proposal for a white spaces database, added chat to Translator Kit, launched the "Near me Now" feature for iPhone and Android, showing nearby businesses by category based on the user's location, and tailored mobile search suggestions to location. Then it was discovered that Google had applied for approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for the right to purchase and monetize energy.
Google Fast Flip became available at the bottom of Google News, "Google" was declared the word of the decade, and Google Friend Connect became available for the Drupal and Joomla content management systems (this could be significant to Google's social strategy). Google was granted a patent for "Claiming Real Estate in Panoramic or 3D Mapping Environments for Advertising" leading to speculation that the company could sell ads on billboard imagery throughout Google Maps Street View. Google Docs began offering the ability to upload files of any type, with a total storage limit of 1GB.
Google was targeted in an attack that led to the whole situation with Google and China that has dominated many headlines throughout the year. Google announced on its blog that it would no longer censor search results on Google.cn. This led to a great deal of back and forth between Google and China.
Looks like Google had a very busy year in 2010. I wonder what they will get up to in 2011.
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