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The Internet is an unimaginably vast and infinitely valuable resource of the world’s most remarkable information. Updated by the millisecond, it holds around 500 billion gigabytes of data and even as you read this a few more have been uploaded and downloaded several times.

It is often simply described as ‘a network of networks.’ However, the internet is much more than just a series of tubes. From traditional Aboriginal recipes and fashion advice to the musings of a teenager from rural Kentucky–-the Internet (or the Web specifically) is everyone and everything. It is the collective consciousness of all humanity; a record of everything we were, are and want to be both as individuals and as a race. You can, quite literally, find anything you want on the Internet.

But how exactly do you find a microscopic needle in a haystack the size of a planet?

When Google unveiled their mobile operating system, Android, back in November 2007 alongside their announcement of the Open Handset Alliance they were met with a mix of excitement, surprise and skepticism. The open-source software platform was, after all, just another in the fragmented list of mobile operating systems. And with Google’s history of losing the initial enthusiasm on ambitious projects such as this (*cough*wave*cough*), many feared it wouldn’t turn out to be all they hoped.

Google was—and still is—primarily an advertising company, but over their 12 year history, they have tried out a multitude of ventures. They now have their toes dipped in almost everything a web user does online; operating system (desktop and mobile), web browser, ads, email, social network, microblogging and blogging, instant messaging, search, video, photos, navigation, analytics, documents, web & software development – the list goes on.

Could Google, with their vastly expansive business structure, really focus on a smartphone operating system and deliver the promised goods? With Windows Mobile, Symbian, Blackberry, Palm and the then newly released iPhone, all vying to dominate the smartphone market, could Android carve out a piece of the pie for itself?

So I wrote a few articles some time ago for DAWN SciTech World and Spider Magazine and because I didn’t have a site when they were published, they sort of got lost on the Web. In loving memory, here they are in reverse order of publication: