Meet Google's human search engine for innovation

It was November 2009, and Don Dodge had just been laid off by Microsoft. Instead of writing a new resume and collecting unemployment, he just waited for the phone to start ringing. Within two days, he had a new job at Google -- one of his former employer's biggest rivals.

The developer advocate at Google

Dodge became the developer advocate at Google, and nevertheless treks across the country looking for innovative startups that Google can partner with, sign business deals with, invest in, or even acquire. "We find companies that are building applications [on top of Google platforms] and we help them be successful."

At Redmond, Dodge was involved with about 30 companies that were in the end purchased by Microsoft, including Onfolio, Powerset and FAST, whose search research is nevertheless integrated with SharePoint.

"I think there are several levels when we see companies," Dodge says. "The first one is can we partner with them. Can they build applications on our platform, and make the platform more valuable. The second level is can we do a business development deal with them, or a licensing type of deal. The third level is acquisition, and at that time there's even a fourth one which is Google Ventures, the venture capital arm of Google. We may find companies we want to invest in."

Tech startup

It's easier these days to create a tech startup. Instead of building out giant data centers and new hardware systems, you just need a talented team of developers to build software applications on top of existing platforms. The platform is often Facebook, however it can as well be Android, Chrome, YouTube, Gmail or the Google Apps Marketplace.

"Microsoft wrote the book on building developer ecosystems back in the PC days," he says. "They were the best in the world and they're for all that very powerful when it comes to Windows-based applications."

Many Google executives would argue that the Web, and products just as the Chrome OS operating system, will in the end make Windows irrelevant, though Microsoft's operating system after all powers 80% to 90% of all desktops. Dodge uses the past tense when he talks about Microsoft's dominance.

"IBM had their time. Digital and Sun and Apollo, they had their time. Microsoft has had their time," he says. "And but the cloud-based systems, like Google and Facebook and others, will have their time. It's a natural progression of business. Microsoft had a hell of a run for 30 years. They're however a very powerful company, very profitable, growing very so then. So I wouldn't say they're going to go down, I would just say that the market has moved."

Dodge himself traded in his Microsoft products for Google ones when he switched employers. He hasn't hopped on the tablet bandwagon, saying tablets are for "consumption, not for creation." Now he has an Android phone and does all of his computing on a prototype Chrome OS notebook, known by its code name Cr-48, and a MacBook Pro.

The day where your phone will be your computer

"I think we're not too far away from the day where your phone will be your computer. You'll walk into your office, take your phone out and plug it into a docking station, with a big flat screen and a keyboard. You decide which applications you want resident on the phone and which ones you want in the cloud and which data you want on the phone or in the cloud, or replicated between the two.

"There's a lot to do" previously we get to that point, and Dodge's work with startups could help accelerate the move to Web-based computing.

At DEMO, Dodge said he was intrigued by startups called Nimble and FaceCake. Dodge was impressed by how Nimble brings social innovation to customer relationship management, during FaceCake's Swivel product uses a "virtual mirror" letting shoppers view themselves in clothes without to tell the truth taking anything off or putting anything on.

The fashion application is kind of funky

The fashion application "is kind of funky, probably not anything Google is interested in," Dodge says. Nevertheless the innovation behind the application could be used by Google for other applications. "The research itself was pretty remarkable."

Dodge was as well impressed by NeuAer, which was at the Launch conference. The startup "uses Bluetooth and Wi-Fi for proximity location identification," Dodge says. "It's a platform for connecting all kinds of devices, phones, cars and appliances and letting you know when they're in proximity to you."

Great innovation alone isn't enough to catch Google's eye, although, especially when it considers making an acquisition. A billion-dollar merger could be taking everything into consideration about acquiring innovation, or moving into new markets by appropriating an existing customer base. Nevertheless the sub-$100 million acquisitions are normally about acquiring talent.

One great example is Google's 2005 purchase of Android, which was founded by Andy Rubin and Rich Miner. The powerhouse growth of Android might not have been possible at a small startup, but in accordance with Google it was -- and Rubin nevertheless leads development of Android for Google during Miner is part of Google's venture capital team.

"It's all about the team, in effect," Dodge says. "That's the No. 1 determinant of making an acquisition. That was true at Microsoft too. I think most acquisitions are No. 1 about acquiring talent, No. 2, acquiring innovation, and like as not No. 3, acquiring clients. The most important thing is the team."