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October 6th 2006
(2) The Google Life
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Blogging, Internet, Life, Misc.
It’s been a long time since Google was just a search engine. Today, Google is pretty much into everything and the name is known globally. We’ve all most probably either been on the Google website or installed a piece of Google software - whatever operating system you work on. Today, while I was in one of my many thought provoking moments, I realised that Google plays an integral part of my life on the computer. Is Google taking over our e-lives?
Calculator
This post has stemmed from my thoughts on how a simple program that comes with most, maybe all operating systems - the calculator. Windows provides all users with both a standard and scientific calculator to work with. Yet, when I want to calculate something, I open Firefox (if it’s not already open) and enter my calculation into Google. I prefer to write the calculation into Google’s search box rather than into the Windows Calculator interface. This simple act lead me on to think about other ways I employ Google in my everyday life.
You’ve Got Mail Google
Nearly everyone who’s keen on internet technology has a Google Mail account and uses it quite regularly. I use Google Mail as my secondary e-mail account although I use it more because it’s the e-mail I use for my alias around the web. I also use my e-mail address provided by my ISP via Mozilla Thunderbird but that is used only occasionaly for formal communication and to check my parents’ e-mail. Also, as a Mozilla Firefox user, I use the unofficial Gmail Notifier extension to notify me of new mail. Google Mail is now not only a website I visit, but it has a presence on every page I visit in my browser.
One Stop Shop
Google is really the one stop shop for everything anyone needs. Google has created tools for the common internet user, webmasters, corporations, small businesses and everyone else; even tools that no one will probably ever use but looks good. Google Earth, Google Mail, Google Blog Search, Google Code Search, Google Reader, Google Analytics, Google Picasa, Google Talk, Google Writely, Google Trends, Google Calendar, Google Adsence, Google Spreadsheet, Google Video and the list goes on and on…
Google is pretty much the jack of all trades and usually the master of all of them. They’ve taken a presence on many businesses’ websites websites under the ‘Finding Us’ header and they have really been the dominant provider of search results over past years. Google recently took a move into schools by getting British school children to design a Google logo in the theme of Britain for a competition - you don’t have to use a computer to see Google anymore. More often than not, especially on the news, you’ll see a faint Google logo in the bottom right of your screen as they use graphics generated from Google Earth to show you things from around the world. Google is on your TV. In America, Google is trying out radio adverts. Google is everywhere.
Google & You
If you use any Google service, you’ve most likely got a Google Account. I know for me, Google has collected a lot of information about me, and as long as it doesn’t do an AOL, I’m pretty fine with that. I seem to trust Google with my data. Whatever you search, any e-mail you send or recieve and any images you look at; Google know. Any Google service you use, Google collects data. What it does with it, I’ve no idea but it must be useful to them in some way. Google is much like Microsoft. Just go with me here for the moment. I mean in terms of Microsoft’s Passport idea. The Google Account is fast becoming a universal login. But, as more services either use the Google Account for logins, or are bought by Google (is YouTube about to become the next family member?), will you still trust Google to gather your data from all the services you use or is Google becoming ‘evil’ at this point? It may be handy to have one account for all the services you use, but is it practical? What happens if someone guesses your password? What happens if all your data is lost? All your services lost.
Google is slowly moving into a bigger chunk of our lives - even our language - but is there a point where Google should stop? A point where Google is going too far? Is Google becoming evil? What do you think and what are your experiences?
Interesting thoughts. I personally don’t trust Google with my data and I try to minimize the amount of information Google knows about me whilst still using their services by actively blocking unique identifier cookies, removing click tracking, disabling personalized search and using multiple accounts. The thing is, Google is still quite a young company and I don’t know if it’s so wise to give so much of your data to a company which could still move in a lot of directions.
[…] With the new release, Mozilla have put a lot of emphasis on security by introducing a phishing filter. In previous versions of Firefox this was also provided by a third-party extension such as the Google Toolbar but is now provided by both Mozilla and Google, in-built into Firefox. This is handy and puts the browser in good running with the less experienced web users as well as internet regulars such as myself, ahem . As usual, if you use Google as your phishing filter, every website you visit is sent to them and this may deter some users from using the service (as was discussed in a previous post on Google). […]