Xerox PARC was awesome. There was more than the development of the PC/network inc fibernet/email/Word/laser printer.. there was Mead Conway VLSI experiment which was global and local for various Stanford projects; there was all sorts of Physics from DLTS to ... and more much more.

It was an international resource of epic proportions, a tough act for Google to follow but as Eric Schmidt was there maybe there's hope.

Thank you, Philipp, for such an exhaustive and complete post of what Google has been up to this year. I for one would like to see 2010 be the year Google finally has a real competitor (and not one that turns the relationship into a duopoly), but I don't see that happening.

A very thorough summary to read during the Christmas holiday. Thanks!

I was baffled to see no mention of "opening" their map data in Google's blog post on "The meaning of open".

I'm looking forward to a clash of closed (Google Map Maker) and open (OpenStreetMap) ideologies on this front in 2010.

I hope in 2010 they'll focus on Google Docs and Google Wave.

Yet, What I wish the most is solving all the thread view bugs in Gmail (Not cutting consistently at the same place, messing with Signatures).

P.S.

Applying the File API in their apps.

This post is GREAT. Far better than what I could hope (and I have pretty high standards when it's about Philipp!). Thanks a lot.