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A software technology company’s success can always be traced back to the strength of its research and development (R&D) team and its strategy. However, this alone is not enough, since ideas which evolve from research and development need to be marketed and commercialized for them to be profitable to the company. Google Labs, by Google, is a clever mix of these two concepts.

Essentially, Google Labs showcases some of the interesting ideas to have come from its research and development team which have not yet been released to the general public. It is also a clever marketing strategy to showcase these products on a separate page, as it allow Google to share its developments behind the scenes which gives the users a greater sense of involvement and participation in its business.

Be that as it may, this strategy is a double-edged sword, since it can alert Google’s competitors as to which products and ideas Google is working on behind the scenes. However, one can almost rest assured that the ideas showcased on Google Labs are some of the more publicly known ideas and concepts, as Google will not want to prematurely reveal an idea which has the potential to give them a huge edge over their competitors, for obvious reasons.

It is important to keep in mind that Google Labs is an active showcase of products, which means that it showcases products which are currently being offered to the public for early previewing or beta testing. Hence, the products available on Google Labs today may or may not be available in the future, depending on its suitability and appeal to users at large. If a product gains wide acceptance amongst its users, and reaches a certain maturity and reliability level, Google ‘graduates’ the product from the Labs page and puts it instead in the Google Products page.

The Google Labs page is divided into two sections, one which lists the products which are currently available to users for beta testing, and another section which displays the products which have gained approval, or graduated. At the time of writing, the top three products available for beta testing are Experimental Search, Google Code Search and Google Transit. On the other hand, the three most recent products to have graduated from Google Labs are GOOG-411, Google Reader and Google Notebook.

Each of these products are innovative and set to revolutionize the way search engines have been perceived in the past. For example, as the name suggests, Google’s Experimental Search experiments with new ideas to make searching for information on the Internet easier and more informative. Four main features Google is working on in this experimental version is an alternative view for search results (e.g. timeline based), keyboard shortcuts which allow users to navigate search results similar to that used by Gmail, left-hand search navigation, and right-hand contextual search navigation.

These are only some of the innovations showcased on Google Labs. For more interesting products and features, visit labs.google.com and see for yourself what interesting ideas Google’s research and development team is working on. If you see a product you like, be sure to write to them and acknowledge their efforts, and if you notice an area which can be improved in any of their products, you can directly contact the developers who are always keen to listen users and their needs.

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