Illustration by Peter Oumanski
Can Google stop itself from becoming Microsoft? The many-tentacled technology giant sometimes appears to be a disorganized jumble of fascinating products--maps! phones! videos!--but under the leadership of cofounder-turned-CEO Larry Page there are signs of a master plan. He's killed at least 28 underperforming projects, and reorganized the executive team. And there's no denying that the products are evolving in innovative ways.
Google+, while not be the most sought-after social network, has a standout video conferencing feature: Hangouts. The self-driving car project is looking less like a futuristic fancy and more like a near-term possibility--the vehicles have logged at least 300,000 miles to date, and are already street legal in California, Florida, and Nevada. And its Android mobile phone operating system is now used by 72% of the worldwide market, far exceeding Apple's iOS.
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