#google powermeter

[phenomena70-blog]

Google shutting down PowerMeter

Lots of ruminations on why Google is doing this. My take is that 1) With the recent new CEO switch up (co-founder Larry Page is now CEO) and some sticky investigations pending, Google is re-focusing on core strengths and areas of expertise. Smart Grid stuff isn't either of those for them. 2) Google has a long history of developing technological connections between science, communication, environmentalism, and social good. They may have done everything they wanted to do: to get the market excited about how web technologies can help reduce energy consumption.

Amplify’d from googleblog.blogspot.com

More broadly, we remain committed as always to helping people around the world access and use information pertinent to them. We’ll continue to pursue this goal and to encourage government and industry to do the same.

We first launched Google PowerMeter as a Google.org project to raise awareness about the importance of giving people access to data surrounding their energy usage.

PowerMeter has helped demonstrate the importance of this access and created something of a model. However, our efforts have not scaled as quickly as we would like, so we are retiring the service. PowerMeter users will have access to the tool until September 16, 2011.

Ultimately though, we want to satisfy the most pressing needs for the greatest number of people.

Read more at googleblog.blogspot.com

 See this Amp at http://amplify.com/u/a17kws

[thoughtyoushouldseethis-blog]

The Deaths of Google Health and Google PowerMeter

As the Internets go bananas over the many introductions Google has announced this week, attention is diverted from the news that two of its much-ballyhooed announcements from recent years will be shuttered by the end of the year. In An Update on Google Health and Google PowerMeter, two leads from the projects explain the decisions. Here's Aaron Brown, senior product manager of Google Health:

We wanted to translate our successful consumer-centered approach from other domains to healthcare and have a real impact on the day-to-day health experiences of millions of our users. Now, with a few years of experience, we’ve observed that Google Health is not having the broad impact that we hoped it would.

And here's Bill Weihl, Google's Green Energy Czar, on PowerMeter:

Studies show that having simple access to such information helps consumers reduce their energy use by up to 15%; of course, even broader access to this information could help reduce energy use worldwide... We’re pleased that PowerMeter has helped demonstrate the importance of this access and created something of a model. However, our efforts have not scaled as quickly as we would like, so we are retiring the service.

There are many reasons for these failures, not least that the implementation of innovation is as enormously difficult as developing a smart strategy in the first place. In both of these instances, Google wasn't able to scale its great ideas in a feasible, sustainable manner. It couldn't build an audience for its offerings, and it clearly didn't factor in the existing context of industries not inclined to embrace new ways of doing things. These challenges are something I'm thinking a lot about at the moment (I'm co-chairing a DMI-sponsored conference on the topic of Design at Scale that'll be held in New York in October.) For now, it's difficult not to assign a degree of hubris to Google's good intentions, and wave goodbye to more unfulfilled potential.

[infoneer-pulse]

In the coming months, we’re going to retire two products that didn’t catch on the way we would have hoped, but did serve as influential models: Google Health (retiring January 1, 2012; data available for download through January 1, 2013) and Google PowerMeter (retiring September 16, 2011). Both were based on the idea that with more and better information, people can make smarter choices, whether in regard to managing personal health and wellness, or saving money and conserving energy at home. While they didn't scale as we had hoped, we believe they did highlight the importance of access to information in areas where it’s traditionally been difficult.

» via [Google Blog](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/06/update-on-google-health-and-google.html)

[smart-grid]

Google For Dear Life

If I had a smart meter I would have posted a better picture of Google PowerMeter running on Android. Unfortunately I have to wait for NSW officials to legislate or I must move to Newington and take part in a pilot project. Hence the rather funky illustration from Google's website, which I dig...

Also check out the competition: Microsoft Hohm