In the past six months the chaps at Google have been busy. They’ve been pushing products out the door like nobodies business. There’s Google TV, Google eBookstore, Google Hotpot, Boutiques.com (although you’d be hard-pressed to figure out that’s a Google project just from the site). They’re innovating and inventing exciting things at GoogleHQ.

There’s an obvious problem though. Mention any of the recent products to someone who isn’t a reader of tech news websites or Google’s blog and you’ll be met with a blank and vacant stare. People aren’t paying attention to what Google are doing any more. They’re old-hat. They’re not exciting. If anything, they’re actually boringnow.

This is not something that Google are unaware of internally. The recent change at the very top, with Eric Schmidt standing aside from the CEO job to let Larry Page take the reins is a sign that Google know that they’re having problems. The balance sheet is looking very healthy but the long-term prospects aren’t. Looking like a dull company with uninteresting and unexciting products means that Google won’t attract the best people – at the level Google operates whether or not someone wants to work for your company is down to the development challenge your products represent much more than money or prestige. As a developer with a reasonable amount of experience myself I’d be loathe to join Google; I’d much rather work for companies like Twitter or Facebook where the challenge is still current, or for a start-up doing something truly innovative.

Another issue that Google face is the fact Facebook is in the process of barricading users into their section of the internet. If Google aren’t making things that users look at then they’re not displaying adverts to anyone. That’s Google’s core business. Lose that, and Google’s other products are redundant.

To give them their due, Google aren’t down and out yet. They have an immense pool of resources that they can draw on. For an example of that you need look no further than what has happened with the start-up wunderkind Groupon. Google’s takeover offer of $6billon was turned down so Google have built Google Offers to take them on directly. Google have done that in a matter of months, and they’re leveraging their tools like AdSense and Google Local to bring in small business advertisers who might have potentially gone to Groupon if the Google hadn’t created their own service. That’s the sort of power that Google have. All they need to do now is make sure the users see those offers. That’s where Google’s ‘old school’ apps like GMail and YouTube give Google an advantage. Still, Groupon were first to market, and have a huge lead in the coupon website space, so beating them is going to be hard.

Looking to the future I hope that Google last, and continue to bring us great products like they have in the past. I think they need to focus on inventing rather than copying, and get back that reputation for developing cool tech that they once had. It’d be horrible to see them lose to Facebook.