That same day, the New York Times published an article detailing Google’s interest in web TV and partnering with Sony and Intel to get there.  If  I think about my own habits and the people around me, I think they are in the right direction and can transform the internet, social media and computers into something that is seamlessly integrated into our lives.

Let me explain my habits and maybe it will help provide context to my opinion.  I am not an early adopter, I don’t try every new toy as they come onto the market(I was never in the “cool crowd” and am still not).  I don’t sign up for every new website when they are launched(I do read about them).  I sit in front of a computer for work most of the day, but don’t use social media at work.  I use my smart phone to connect to people, twitter, facebook and any other social tool I am subscribed to.  I come home after a long day and relax, unwind and watch tv, but am loathe to open my computer because that was work.  Any additional social contacts I make are done through my cell and that is it.

In comes Google with an understanding that I am an average user and don’t want to connect wires to computers to sync everything.  I don’t want to have four devices open in front of me at a time.  They understand that I am not getting rid of my TV habit, but am willing to part with my computer.  They understand that if a cell phone suits my needs for my social interactions, that a supped up TV would be even better(font size, speed and general comfort would all be increased).

They are essentially integrating tools into our everyday habits instead of introducing tools that force us to change our human behavior.  Computers have only been mainstays in our homes since the early 90′s ( Yes, many early adopters had computers at home since the early 80′s) and during the last 20 years they have constantly evolved.  The constant evolution has changed the way we interact with them, making it nearly impossible to hard wire computers into our daily routines.  If I polled people on how they used the computer in 1990, 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010 I bet we would have 5 different answers float to the top.

On the other hand, TV’s and phones have been part of our lives since the 1950′s for TV and 1870′s for the telephone and their basic functions have never changed.  Phones still call people and TV still displays broadcast and cable shows.  Abstractly, phones are used to connect to people and TV’s are use to get away from work and other daily routines.

As I understand it today, the future of the internet, social media and computers are not in new gadgets, websites or apps that early adopters latch onto, but in regular household mainstays that enable a seamless use of all the different media and essentially unchanged routines.

Small businesses no longer have the capital to innovate and are too busy figuring out how to survive.  They are cutting expenses daily and trying to operate with less in the bank.  Although banks are “turning profits”(I put that in quotes because I don’t believe them), there aren’t many new loans being given.  Honestly, small businesses aren’t even looking for the money because who knows when they’ll be able to pay it back.  

Large corporate businesses aren’t innovating either.  They are looking at this economy as a time to squash the competition and gain a larger portion of the market share.  From a business point of view, if I were the CEO, that is exactly what I would do.  It makes sense to spend money to beat the competition while they are hurting, this way when things turn around revenue will increase exponentially.  

From a consumer’s point of view and the idealist in me, I want large corporations to spend money on research and development.  If one new sensational product came out this year from a proven corporation, spirits could be lifted and new cash would be infused into the economy.  This would start a chain reaction and help lift the global economy.  

Am I asking too much?

Companies with many layers of middle management are at a disadvantage in this climate, because they take longer to make decisions and execute them.  This pyramid structure breeds a culture where the staff is trying to move up the ladder, not run the business.  The company follows the CEO’s direction and maybe a handful of other executives that are part of the inner circle.  The problem comes when the company needs drastic and quick change.  If there are ten levels of management it might take two months to trickle down to the people that are actually executing.  After the two months, I am willing to bet the instructions are completely different than those the CEO gave.  Remind you of a game of “telephone”?

On the other hand, in small businesses people are more inclined to know what everyone’s specialties are and go directly to the source when things need to get done.  If the small business sees numbers tanking compared to last year, they can analyze, devise plans, adapt and move forward before the large corporation even moves an inch.  Maybe this idea of small business that I am describing is more of an entrepreneurial environment, but it is surely a more effective mode of communication and operation.

Some might argue that social media can bring this flexibility to larger corporations, flatten out their structure and change their communication styles, but today I am a cynic.  I think that companies where the culture is driven by people who are “in the know” are not inclined to use or adopt blogs, twitter, social networks or any tool that is meant for collaboration.  They actually fear them because they cannot control the conversation.

In contrast, entrepreneurial small businesses live for that one good idea that will push them over the edge.  For them, sharing ideas between staff members is expected and communicating with customers is desired.  This is why social media is a set of tools that small business can use to overtake their corporate competition, not the other way around.  Look at how Gary Vaynerchuk of Winelibrary used social media to grow his wine business.  He didn’t spend millions of dollars mass marketing, he figured out a way to interact with a new audience of potential customers. 

I am not a right wing conservative, but I do believe that it is the small businesses that test out new ideas and share information with their staff and customers that will not only survive this downturn, they will also grow.  Its this idea that motivates me to learn about the new gadgets, sites and tools that come out every day so I can recommend them to my clients and friends to enable them to succeed.  The top of my list recently has been open source tools(I love wordpress, mysql, openoffice), hosted services (basecamp, centraldesktop, google apps, amazon web services, salesforce) and social media( blogs, twitter, facebook, linkedin, ning, friendfeed).  

What’s on your list?