After reading a post to Innoblog lauding Google's culture of innovation, I started wondering, what exactly is so innovative about Google that keeps the fanboys fawning?

I'm sure there's something, but I can't come up with much. Anyone here care to pinpoint some of Google's innovations?
 

"I started wondering, what exactly is so innovative about Google that keeps the fanboys fawning?"

I think Google has a public image of being a dynamic innovative company, and it keeps promoting this image in the hope that the image will somehow mutate into a culture of innovation.

Google creates this image by releasing projects such as Base and labelling them as "beta" versions. Some people (the fanboys) accept the image as reality. Their reasons for doing this are varied, I presume. A vain hope that G will live up to its image? Just plain ignorance?
 

There's a few things that google has done that would be considered innovative, in a loose sense.

The original search algorithms are definitely innovative. After this it gets a bit sketchy. Gmail is innovative to a point (if you consider the way it's set up in 'conversation style'). Google's various search submodalities (local, academic) are innovative in how they organize and obtain the data.

Base is innovative in the sense that it transfers some of the responsibility of categorizing the internet's information back to the people who actually create this information. Is it a revolution? No. Is it an evolution? Yes.

Regardless, the definition of innovative can be twisted to fit any criteria. The real innovation here is the work of Google's marketing monkeys. The monkeys got together to create a $400/share company. Quite an achievement for a industry that's based on either half-truths or all out lies. Google is not evil. Remember that.