An employee walks past the logo of Google in front of its former headquarters in Beijing
IN PHOTO: An employee walks past the logo of Google in front of its former headquarters, in Beijing June 2, 2011. Hackers who broke into Google's Gmail system had access to some accounts for many months and could have been planning a more serious attack, said the cyber-security expert who first publicly revealed the incident. Picture taken June 2, 2011. Reuters/Jason Lee

Google is shifting its focus to becoming a mobile service provider instead of just a search engine platform. According to Know Your Mobile, the tech giant is aiming to compete directly with the big network providers in the United States: Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile.

This is major news as Google runs Android. The report further highlights that 80% of handsets shipped worldwide can be accounted under Android. The company also remains the biggest name in search and robotics. Moving to the mobile carrier industry should not be a surprise considering th company's recent moves.

There have been conspiracy theories before saying that Google wants to be a global network provider. Becoming a mobile carrier should be the first move in doing that. Earlier reports have already highlighted Google's move into the wireless carrier industry. In fact, The Register claims that Google has identified the primary areas it will be providing its gigabit-a-second fiber broadband. The following cities include Atlanta, GA; Charlotte, NC; Raleigh-Durham, NC; and Nashville, TN. Google wants to roll out the connection to 18 more cities.

Google Fiber vice president Dennis Kish said in a blog post: "We’ve been working closely with city leaders over the past year on a joint planning process to get their communities ready for Google Fiber—and now the really hard work begins." This emphasizes the continuing efforts of the company to become more than just a search engine giant.

However, while Google focuses on expanding its reach, it may have to look closer into its email services as Amazon may become a direct competitor. Amazon may be known to be an e-commerce company but it has reportedly been working on a new online email and digital calendar service labelled as WorkMail (via The Wall Street Journal).

According to Wired, to guarantee user security, Amazon will be working with an encryption technology which companies need to work with using a set of control keys. Google's Gmail service has a number of competitors already like Quip, Box.com, Evernote and Dropbox to which Amazon will be adding up.

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