If you follow the developments of Google, 2006 was a busy year.  It seemed like new products would launch before we'd had a chance to get our minds around the previous new product.  And as I mentioned earlier, 2006 was also the year of two big acquisitions by the company that might have far-reaching affects for the profitability and success of the company.

Donna Bogatin, as part of a series of posts for ZDNet, has explored several of Google's 2006 activities to see which ones were hits and which ones were misses.  As you can see from her write-up, Bogatin has spent much of the year following the developments of the search company and weighs in with one final assessment of the success, or lack thereof, for a couple of Google happenings:

Google Checkout

• Bogatin Says:  Miss
• I Say:  Neutral

Bogatin cites poor adoption and lack of interest in Google checkout from merchants.  I'm not going to argue and say that merchants love Google Checkout.  The fact is, there's no way to know for sure whether they like it or not as a whole.  Some probably hate it while others love it.  That doesn't matter, though.  What matters is that the competition has taken notice, and that makes it more than a miss.  Will I say it's been a hit?  Not yet.  PayPal has noticed Google.  Others following the industry have taken notice.  A multitude of articles have been written about Google's attack on PayPal.  And while the services are different, PayPal has to be at least a little worried.  Plus, consumers loved the money they saved during the holiday shopping season and we all know what a driving force consumer opinion can be.

Google Apps For Your Domain

• Bogatin Says:  Hit
• I Say:  Hit

I was privy to a presentation on the Google Apps For Your Domain in St. Louis and I have to agree with Bogatin on this one.

Quickbooks Enhanced by Google

• Bogatin Says:  Neutral
• I Say:  Neutral

Not only has Google failed to publicize this partnership much, but you also don't hear much about it from anyone else.  Nothing much has come from the arrangement so it can't be called a hit.

Google Alliance With BSkyB

• Bogatin Says:  Hit
• I Say:  Miss

Just because something works in Britain doesn't mean it will work everywhere.  Besides, the British never get anything right, so I'm not holding my breath to see this pan out to much of anything.  International markets aren't to be discounted, of course.  But the United States is the king of television consumption and unless they're run in The States, I say the tests are not indicative of the overall success of a campaign.

That was Bogatin's list.  But far be it from me to leave a list untouched.  I think she missed several developments worth mentioning.  So I've got four more newsworthy Google happenings from 2006 that I think are certainly worth looking at:

Google Acquisition of YouTube

• I Say:  Potential Hit

Google needs growth and the acquisition of YouTube was a great way to secure that growth.  However, not just any company could have pulled off that move successfully.  While it was a wise choice for Google, it would have been unwise for most other companies to purchase a service ripe for the copyright infringement pickings.  Google was able to make those problems virtually disappear, though.  The ball is still in the air of the long-term successfulness of YouTube.  If Google can monetize the service, it'll be a home run.  If not, it will be a lovely $1.65 billion paperweight on the Google desk.

Google Alliance With Microsoft and Yahoo on Sitemaps Protocol

• I Say:  Hit

Google led the sitemaps dance by implementing an easy procedure for website owners to upload their sitemaps in a standardized format.  Yahoo and Microsoft joined the club a little later on and I say that's certainly a hit.  Anything that allows the search engines to cooperate and eases the workload of busy website owners and companies is good news in my book!

Google Acquistion of dMarc Broadcasting

• I Say:  Miss

Google had a lot of buzz going with this purchase.  But that was January.  Here we are closing the year out, and Google has yet to really do much with Audio Ads.  Sure, it's being beta tested and used by a select group of advertisers.  But that doesn't mean anything is going to happen with the service.  Google dropped the ball on this one and has taken far too long to bring the service to fruition.  The buzz is gone and Google is going to have to work to get it back.

Google Patent Search

• I Say:  Hit

I've already mentioned the Google Patent Search on numerous occasions.  If you have yet to figure out the potential of this service, I'll let you roll it around for a bit longer.  Needless to say, it's a great search product and the uses are too numerous to list here.

What do you think?  Look back over 2006 and make your own list of Google hits and misses for the year.  Different people will have different opinions on what's a hit and what's a miss because of how those things apply to them.  I'd love to hear some of your thoughts on the subject.