Google is retiring the blogger and picasa brands in favor of a new new branding strategy. From now on we’ll have “Google Blogs” and “Google Photos”. This is part of an effort to move the company’s direction towards more social oriented products and of course is related to the launch of Google+. A bold move for sure, that makes one wonder how can Google be so certain about it’s success

You see, unfortunately for the first time in human history we don’t know where we are going. And by that I mean that there is no certain path for the future of technology. Some things are certain, like the mobile supremacy in less than five years, but nobody can predict how people will be using the internet next year. Since the first dot com bubble back in 2000 we see every year new products that change the way we interact with computers and people and reshape the way businesses and people work. Game changing products like YouTube, Facebook and twitter pop out so fast that we can’t even tell if there will be demand for something in the next two years.

With all that uncertainty in the air, giants like Google are forced to make irrational decisions that will prove wrong sooner or later. The greater the size of a company, the greater the risk. And the greater the risk for the big players, the greater the opportunity for the small ones. The lesson here is that scanning market demands as fast as possible with the lower cost possible is not a luxury anymore.

The lessons we got from the early revolutionary startups like 37signals are now put into action in the total of the tech economy. Until the web app market of today becomes congested all we can do is develop and release as fast as possible and keep our eyes open for the new leaders.