Tuesday, May 4, 2010

The Google Empire

It's a hot button topic. Is Google taking over the earth? I don't know, but I've been thinking quite a bit about it since I am doing market research on their cloud computing arm this week. It's more boring than the radical answers you normally hear:

i.e. "Google is awesome, they are the best company ever, please take my wife if you'd like!" or "Google is horrible and trying to sleep with our girlfriends!"

I believe the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Its not as if they have a webcam installed in our computers. But they are profiting from information they glean from us. If you have any question about that, take a look at the ads alongside your emails (if you use gmail, like everyone I know my age.) The only issue with this is how far it goes.

Google is attempting to place everything online. Why? The more activities done online, the more information they have about people's behavior and the more access they have for targeted advertising, which is where their 26 Billion dollars of revenue come from per year.

I have an idea, let's all get together and start playing large scale practical jokes on Google. Start sending emails about things you don't care about. Start clicking on ads you don't want to. Companies will be paying Google for no revenue themselves and the whole system will come crashing down in 20 years! People will start rioting on other search engines! Computers will explode and planes will fall from the sky and Jesus will show up on everyone's monitor at the same time!

Or you could just walk outside, get some fresh air, talk to an actual human being and not worry so much.

And by the way, if you think the world is going to end tomorrow, just stop watching the nightly news.

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