Google Devta - this is an internal slang we use among our group of friends. Indeed for some of us 'Google Fans' - Google is akin to God. It serves most of all online needs: want to surf the net - use Google Search, want to check email - use GMail, want to read blogs - use Google Reader, want to write a blog - use Google Blogger, want to find out how many INR is $1 - use Google Search [Click to know how], need data from a French website - use Google translator, want to calculate "4 + 4" - use Google Search again! [Click to know how]
But I am sure none of us is a freak enough to propound that Google can take over the internet. However, it seems there are much more die hard fans of Google on the net who feel this way. So much so that there are now debates hosted on popular blogs on this subject.
I guess, such kinds of 'extremist' views have been propounded even in past but in this case they have been coming to light because of the easy accessibility of information. I am sure there were IBM fans who felt that IBM would soon become the powerhouse of the industrial computing, or that Microsoft would become the controller of all the world's documents. Claims that Google can one day gobble up the internet taste similarly.
But we are forgetting that we live in a free world and that there is enough competition for Google to be taking over the internet. And even if Google wins over competition - Blogs, Email and search - are just a small (though growing) part of the internet. There are corporate websites, university LANs, MS Exchange and Domino (Lotus Notes) servers owned by corporations and governments, several websites and domains owned by individuals, and millions of banner ads not distributed through Google Ad Words on the internet.
A friend of mine keeps warning me against Google becoming all powerful and caging me inside a walled (information) garden owned by itself, and resulting loss of privacy, loss of identity, ignorance engulfing us because Google will keep feeding us with information as it wants to.
Why are we forgetting that Yahoo Mail remains the worlds most used webmail solution or that the most popular mailing list service is still Yahoo Groups or that several early adopters of email still stick to their Hotmail accounts!
I guess its ignorance which is the source of fear - so many of us are today unaware of the hundreds of new researches going on in companies and universities to improve our search experience. To point a few outcomes of these researches I enlist - Chacha, Collarity, SpeegleBot, Nayio .... the list is long. Any of these or probably one that is still in the labs might turn out to be the Dark Horse in this race!
Or ... more likely - the very turf of this competition might undergo a change! Who knows whether we will be using the internet as it stands today, 10 years later. Probably we will be on a Mobile internet or a Semantic web or something else ....
Till then ... Google will enjoy its dominance till it lasts! (as did IBM and Microsoft)
But I am sure none of us is a freak enough to propound that Google can take over the internet. However, it seems there are much more die hard fans of Google on the net who feel this way. So much so that there are now debates hosted on popular blogs on this subject.
I guess, such kinds of 'extremist' views have been propounded even in past but in this case they have been coming to light because of the easy accessibility of information. I am sure there were IBM fans who felt that IBM would soon become the powerhouse of the industrial computing, or that Microsoft would become the controller of all the world's documents. Claims that Google can one day gobble up the internet taste similarly.
But we are forgetting that we live in a free world and that there is enough competition for Google to be taking over the internet. And even if Google wins over competition - Blogs, Email and search - are just a small (though growing) part of the internet. There are corporate websites, university LANs, MS Exchange and Domino (Lotus Notes) servers owned by corporations and governments, several websites and domains owned by individuals, and millions of banner ads not distributed through Google Ad Words on the internet.
A friend of mine keeps warning me against Google becoming all powerful and caging me inside a walled (information) garden owned by itself, and resulting loss of privacy, loss of identity, ignorance engulfing us because Google will keep feeding us with information as it wants to.
Why are we forgetting that Yahoo Mail remains the worlds most used webmail solution or that the most popular mailing list service is still Yahoo Groups or that several early adopters of email still stick to their Hotmail accounts!
I guess its ignorance which is the source of fear - so many of us are today unaware of the hundreds of new researches going on in companies and universities to improve our search experience. To point a few outcomes of these researches I enlist - Chacha, Collarity, SpeegleBot, Nayio .... the list is long. Any of these or probably one that is still in the labs might turn out to be the Dark Horse in this race!
Or ... more likely - the very turf of this competition might undergo a change! Who knows whether we will be using the internet as it stands today, 10 years later. Probably we will be on a Mobile internet or a Semantic web or something else ....
Till then ... Google will enjoy its dominance till it lasts! (as did IBM and Microsoft)
i m trying to imagine what next! - a company (say xyz) challenging such that we'll forget google! (we don't use any other search engines now, do we?)... what could xyz bring on the table!
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