"People Have No Idea What We Might Be Up to"

Google's 80/20 program, where associates are encouraged to spend 20 percent of their time thinking up new things for Google to do, means Google "could do almost anything," says one source. Google just bought Jaiku, a mobile social networking and messaging service, and seems still to be hunting for experienced telecom executives and capacity, for example.

Google is going to be a player in mobile, it seems clear enough. The only issue is how it will play, and in how many ways.