Google Plays the Ad Game: The Most Remarkable Thing About the Launch of the Nexus One is not the Phone

An earth-shattering thing occurred this week with Google...and it wasn't just the launch of their mobile phone the Nexus One. Yes, that was interesting (more about that HERE), but it was the *way* in which Google brought this phone to market. While a lot of folks focused on the device's characteristics, or that it is unlocked, that is not what surprised me.

So...what did I think was remarkable? Well...

1) Google advertised the Nexus One on www.Google.com: While it sounds obvious to do this (after all, most companies do), this is a big change for Google. To-date, they have avoided selling any of their own products directly off of Google.com (e.g. Android, Adsense, Aps, etc.). Suddenly, the Nexus One appears on their home page directly promoting and enabling the sale of the device (And that doesn't even count what Google is doing as part of their own ad distribution network). That is not a minor change for the Googleplex.

2) Google is fulfilling the Nexus One directly: When was the last time you ever bought anything directly from Google and had it delivered to your home? Sure, you may have used Google to find something...and then bought from another vendor's site, but Google directly? And on those occasions where you paid Google (e.g. Google Aps), it isn't like something arrived in your mailbox. It is pretty remarkable that Google has built an infrastructure to deliver products. It will be interesting to see how good they are at this (and in fact, there are already complaints. See HERE).

3) Google is now competing against some of its best partners: For better or worse, Google has been very careful to avoid competing against its biggest mobile partners. To-date, they have stuck to selling Android as an operating system and striking search deals on mobile phones and websites. Sprint, Verizon and others sell a huge amount of Android-based cell phones which Google gets a share of. Now, they are basically introducing an entire line of products (e.g. it won't stop with the Nexus One) that could take share from their best friends.

So what is the impact of this change for the future? Well, time will tell. But among the questions I want to see answered are:

1) What is the future of Android? It used to be just about software on a mobile phone. Is that still the case? Or will Google build a whole line of its own devices that compete against the Android operating system.

2) What is the future of partnerships with mobile carriers like Verizon and Sprint? These two carriers represent fully 50% of the mobile phone business in the US. For the short term, I am sure nothing will change, but neither will look kindly on Google if they start to lose share to a directly sold Google phone.

3) Is Google about to "Yahoo" their website? One of the keys to Google's success has been their carefully constructed persona and strategy. Among that has been the simplicity of their website and the perception that they are not playing favorites (perception...because, of course they do play favorites). Will that still be the case?

4) Will they still be proponents of Net Neutrality? Google has been one of the biggest proponents of the FCC's proposed Net Neutrality legislation. Publicly, this is because they profess support for an "open" Internet...but like any large, for-profit company, also because the proposed legislation benefits them. It will be interesting to see if this proposal still holds. After all, now that they are in the hardware business, things are different. For instance, can someone use the Nexus One and make Bing (from Microsoft) the default search tool? What about other applications? Time will tell.