There are a lot of untapped markets in today’s tech world, but one market that Google is apparently going after might spark quite a bit of controversy. Google says it’s a safe bet that when you consider the company sees more than 40,000 queries a second that a number of those searches are being done by kids. Google says its planned move towards making its products more attractive to kids is just a logical leap based on that fact.
The company announced this week it will be aiming its products, such as compatible apps on Android, to children that are 12 and younger. YouTube and Chrome will likely also be following suit and will start to be aimed at a much younger sect than people are used to seeing Google shoot for in its high tech world.
"The big motivator inside the company is everyone is having kids, so there's a push to change our products to be fun and safe for children," Pavni Diwanji, the vice president of engineering charged with leading the new initiative, told USA TODAY.
Diwanji added that the company expects this to be controversial, but Google says it understands that kids already have access to this kind of technology. The firm believes it might actually be making places like the Web safer by catering to a younger client base. Google didn’t say when the initiative will be fully rolled out, but pointed to programs like Maker Camp, Doodle 4 Google and Made with Code. That last will see the White House Christmas trees lit up with coding programs created by kids who live all around the country.
Diwanji says Google’s undertaking is no small feat. The company has approached a wide variety of people, all while looking for the best way to go about doing this kind of move.
Edited by
Maurice Nagle