Samsung XR Headset powered by Google’s AndroidXR
In January 2024, Aravind Srinivas, CEO of Perplexity—a Jeff Bezos–backed AI-powered search engine—remarked: “Google is going to be viewed as something that’s legacy and old.” That statement may not age well.
Giants move slowly. But when they finally do, everything around them either trembles, crumbles, or scrambles to latch on and survive. The decentralized and agile world of information technology allows for frequent, explosive innovation. Yet consumers rarely have the bandwidth or time to learn every new technology that appears. The inertia of brand loyalty and the familiarity of long-established platforms influence which innovations gain traction. When a well-loved tech company innovates with care, the odds of success shift dramatically in its favor.
Google’s Advances in AI and Quantum Computing (QC) Could Revitalize Search and Challenge Amazon’s E-commerce Dominance
Google’s Gemini-powered chatbot and its AI summaries in Search are mere trial runs. The ultimate goal, it seems, is a global quantum GenAI-powered search engine that spans the entire internet—already meticulously indexed by Google for decades. This unparalleled data advantage could give Google an unassailable edge. Likewise, Google Shopping’s AI-generated briefs, recommendations, and product AR-visualizations are just a preview. The larger vision is a seamless, omnipresent shopping experience that might entice you to abandon Amazon altogether.
All these aspirations are inherently risky. But if Google attains scalable QC with future iteration of its groundbreaking quantum processor, Willow, before its competitors, these ambitions become significantly more plausible. The raw power and speed of QC, integrated with Google’s existing platforms, would make the company even harder to surpass.
Google’s Wearable XR Initiatives Could Put the World—Real and Virtual—Before Your Eyes
Samsung and Google have long been partners, aligning their devices and software to form Apple’s greatest competitors across telecommunications, entertainment, and wearable tech. XR will be no exception. However, this particular industry has a rocky track record: the rise and plateau of the metaverse hype, Apple’s discontinuation of the Vision Pro, and shifting predictions all underscore the uncertainty.
Still, Samsung and Google have declared a decisive entry into this space. In 2025, Samsung will launch its XR headset—codenamed Project Moohan (“infinity” in Korean)—powered by Google’s AndroidXR operating system. In addition, Google plans to release prototype smart glasses equipped with Gemini 2.0 and Astra, a new AI agent built primarily for visual interfaces. These two devices aim to bring the entire world to your eyes with varying levels of interaction, depth, and intelligence, effectively establishing a new ecosystem of information, knowledge, and entertainment. This ambitious move positions them to rival Meta’s Quest and Ray-Ban AI Glasses, as well as Apple’s future iterations of the Vision Pro.
Genie 2 Hints at Google’s Return to Gaming
When Google Stadia shut down in January 2023, it looked like just another canceled project in the company’s long list of abandoned ventures. Yet the launch of Genie 2—Google’s GenAI tool for creating playable 3D virtual worlds from a single image—and the forthcoming Moohan XR headset suggest that Google is poised to re-enter the immersive gaming space.
If we consider Google’s moves in AI, QC, shopping, XR, gaming, and wearables, we must ask what the world will look like if the company succeeds in uniting all of these efforts. As Google faces an antitrust ruling regarding its online search and search text ads monopoly, it is logical to anticipate rising regulatory scrutiny as it gains market share in other sectors. While achieving a monopoly in these new arenas remains uncertain, a company of Google’s scale and resources must carefully calculate its next moves.
Ultimately, the claim that Google “is going to be viewed as something that’s legacy and old” seems increasingly unlikely. If anything, the Google Search we know today may one day be seen as the foundation for its next wave of transformational technologies. As it appears from ongoing developments, it will likely become a quantum GenAI-powered portal into different realms of information, education, entertainment, shopping, and gaming, all assisted by XR technology. An ecosystem that would rival that of Apple’s in ways that leverage the entire internet as no other company can.
Then again, if giants fall, the impact is immense, shattering everything in their wake and sending debris flying in all directions.
What do you think Google’s next chapter will look like?