Pineapple Pinnacles

Google knows almost everything connected to the Web, but there is one major source of untapped data the company has scarcely touched to date. Can you guess that area?

“E-commerce transactions.”

The one area where Google isn’t particularly strong is in e-commerce transactions, where its Google Checkout platform sees only about 1 percent of what is sold on the Internet.

“This is obviously an area of great interest for them because so much of their current revenue is devised of advertising,” Gartner analyst Richard Hunter said.

The conversation shed a new light on the rumor that Google could buy online travel power Expedia.

Some financial analysts applauded this notion, while others booed the premise.

The naysayers claimed Google would be broadening its business too much, while the cheerleaders claimed Google would be able to tap a new world of advertising.

Both lines of reasoning are true, but after Hunter’s presentation it became clear that a major e-commerce buy is the missing link for Google’s massive data warehouses, which touched 100 exabytes of data in 2007.

For a company that corralled 100 exabytes of data in 2007, the better question might be: What doesn’t Google know?

And while you’re at it, think about what e-commerce giant Google might be inclined to target to fill out its information and online ad holes. Will it be Expedia? Amazon? eBay?

[Unthinkable says this editor. Imagine a mega-corporation having their fingers all in what you do - Microsoft takeover Yahoo already! What's taking them so long?]

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