Where does Google want to go today?

Growing pains — still
There’s little doubt that Google is going to get much bigger.

The company made that clear last week when it announced plans to build a 1-million-square-foot campus just a few miles away from its 915,000-square-foot headquarters, known as the “Googleplex,” on the grounds of NASA’s Ames Research Center.

Google needs the space for thousands of new workers and plans to draw on the brain power of NASA’s rocket scientists. The new hires will join a payroll that already has nearly tripled in the past two years to 4,200 employees.

For all its growth, Google remains a relative midget alongside Microsoft, which employs 61,000 workers and holds nearly $38 billion in cash. (MSNBC is a Microsoft-NBC joint venture.)

Concerns at Microsoft
But few companies spend more time worrying about Google than Microsoft, and not just because its rival has been raiding its work force to lure away talented engineers. The defectors include Kai-Fu Lee — currently prevented from working on search technology because Microsoft sued him for jumping to Google — and Mark Lucovsky, a key architect of the Windows operating system.

Since 2003, Google has rolled out an assortment of software and services that could coalesce into a challenge to Microsoft’s Office suite of applications, says Stephen Arnold, whose recently completed electronic book, “The Google Legacy,” examines the company’s ambitions beyond online search.

After studying the details of the patents that Google has obtained during the past two years, Arnold is convinced the company plans to build upon the sophisticated computer architecture that drives its search engine to offer a Web-hosted alternative to Windows.

“They have the infrastructure to challenge a company like Microsoft,” Arnold said.

All of this hasn’t gone unnoticed at Microsoft headquarters, where CEO Steve Ballmer vowed to kill Google in an obscenity-laced tirade late last year, according to a sworn court declaration submitted by Lucovsky in the lawsuit targeting Lee.

Ballmer has described Lucovsky’s recollection as a “gross exaggeration.”

Designs on the future
Google does seem to have designs that extend well beyond the turf of the world’s richest and best-known technology company.

While gearing up for its looming showdown with Microsoft, Google also has:

• Launched an effort to create digital versions of entire brick-and-mortar libraries, triggering copyright infringement allegations from the publishing industry, which fears Google won’t be able to protect the contents.
• Unveiled a system for talking over the Internet, spurring speculation about a potential Google-branded telephone;
• Dabbled in wireless Internet access at a handful of connection points near its Silicon Valley home and now wants to extend the service throughout San Francisco, inspiring predictions about a nationwide network that will enable people to get on the Web for free;
• Confirmed the development of an online payment system that hints at company designs on electronic commerce;
• Started to stockpile video and transcripts of previously broadcast material, fueling theories that Google wants to play a bigger role in television;
• Raised $5.3 billion in two separate stock offerings, providing ample financial ammunition for a major acquisition or investment in other projects that might open even more doors.

Industry analyst Lauren Rich Fine suspects Google might use some of that money to buy a stake in its biggest business partner, America Online — and thus thwart Microsoft’s reported attempt to form an alliance with AOL.

Google declined to comment on that possibility.

Too much too soon? Maybe
There’s already plenty on Google’s plate, so much so that some industry observers suspect the company will become a 21st-century Icarus, a high-flying Internet company brought down by its own hubris.

Others believe Google possesses the technical dexterity to wrap its arms around all of its disparate projects.

But even the optimists like Battelle have their doubts.

“There are no guarantees for Google,” he says. “The biggest question is whether they can accomplish everything they want before someone else comes along with even better ideas.”

MORE FROM TECH AND GADGETS

Tech and gadgets Section Front

Dumbest Facebook quizzes ever!   Google narrows book copyright deal Facebook message frees NYC robbery suspect YouTube to support 1080p high-definition videos Clicker launches a TV guide for the Internet Facebook, Wikipedia brief Vatican on Web Britney’s Twitter, MySpace accounts hacked Twitter undermines Canada election rules Newsweek: Can Apple avoid mistakes of the '90s? Microsoft brings more Web data to Bing results Tech and gadgets Section Front   Add Tech and gadgets headlines to your news reader: