Today Google the search giant became Google the online retailer with the launch of a web store in the US. Currently tied to the company's foray into the cellphone market, the web store has but one product; the Nexus One, a new Google smartphone that is faster and more powerful than previous models. Both the store and the phone have been given a US-only launch with no plans for a Canadian release. Google says they are enthusiastic to expand their new business beyond US borders, but the first "test markets" will include the UK, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

The online web store will allow customers to purchase the Nexus One both with a two-year contract from T-mobile at $179 US and without a contract, or "unlocked" at $529. The phone will be the first of many future phones to be made available through the Google Web Store, and while they did not come out and say it today, it's expected their stock could expand to include other portable products running Google software such as netbooks or ultraportable computers. 

Just as computers require basic software to run, Microsoft's Windows on a PC for example and OSX on Apple computers, smartphones also require their own operating system. Google's version of this software is called "Android" and its what makes a cellphone a Google Phone. Since late 2008 there have been a number of Google phones or Android-based phones, most notably here in Canada the HTC Dream, HTC Magic, and HTC Hero. 

The new Nexus One is similar to the previous Android phones in that it offers a touchscreen, built-in GPS, internet access through both 3G and Wi-Fi, a digital compass, and the ability to download and use "apps" from Google's online Android Market store. The main difference is that is a better engineered handset with a significantly faster 1 GHz processor and an active-matric organic LED screen over the tradition LCD or TFT display. 

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A live wallpaper featuring falling leaves and water that ripples when you touch the screen 

These tweaks, along with a new updated version of the Android software (version 2.1) allow the Nexus One to perform a couple of innovative tricks. These include the ability to offer more "desktop" screens which allow users to drag-and-drop widgets for quick reference (such as a Google search bar), "live" wallpapers that include animations and interactive features, 3D galleries, menus with scrolling inventories, and better graphics performance which was used to much effect in demonstrating a version of Google Earth that allowed the screen to skim the landscape with an "flying" perspective.

A 3D picture gallery 

Easily the most impressive feature on display is Voice Navigation. Previously Google had launched a feature called Voice Search on both the iPhone and Android-cellphones that allowed users to perform a Google search by simply speaking their searchwords aloud. Taking this concept to the next step, Voice Navigation can be used with any application, allowing users to dictate e-mails or Twitter updates simply through voice recognition. Users simply speak their instructions aloud and a recording of their voice is sent to Google's servers using the cellphgone's mobile internet connection, and returned as text instantly. This system can also be used to send instruction to a GPS navigation program. Both features are intended for use in a car, while driving.

Many companies have tried to offer a form of speech-to-text dictation for drivers in need of a hands-free solution, as the company with the largest data set for human speech, Google says they've finally cracked it.

Many of these features are part of the new version of Android more than features specific to the Nexus One and Google says that as other Android cellphones are upgraded to the new version or are launched with it, they too may have some of these cool innovations. The Motorola Millstone, due for launch in Canada during the beginning of this year, is set to be the first in Canada running Android 2.1.

On the hardware side the Nexus One has a few notable characteristics, the first being the lack of a physical keyboard. Google and their manufacturing partner HTC say that the market is divided between those who prefer physical keyboards and those who do not and that they will make phones for both demographics. This time it's the turn of the virtual keyboard fans.

A trackball is used for added navigation and will light up as a notification for in-coming messages. A built-in 4 Megapixel camera with LED flash, 2x digital zoom, and camcorder mode. Memory storage is just 512 MB of flash, but this can be expanded with a Micro SD card. 

Although the Nexus One has many of the conventional features of similar handsets, including A2DP stereo bluetooth, an accelerometer, support for multiple e-mail accounts, 3.5 mm headphone jack, removable battery, one basic feature that it lacks is multi-touch, the ability for the touchscreen to allow two fingertips to be used to pinch or spread the screen in order to zoom in and out of maps or photos. It is an odd omission, and one that seems to take the sheen off an otherwise full-featured handset. 

Most full-featured cellphones, those that handle e-mail, web surfing, or multi-media are often referred to in the industry as "smartphones", but oddly today Google injected their own term with "Superphone" referring to a handset that has capabilities beyond the norm. 

To call the Nexus One a "superphone" is misleading. Although it did inspire an intense amount of hype and attention, it is merely an incremental advance in the market of similar phones, delivering no revolution over the iPhone, Palm Pre, BlackBerry, or even previous Android phones.

The real revolution today would be Google's web store, and with that we've only just seen the very beginning.