Cult of Google

I was just writing an e-mail and I wrote:

Thank god for Google maps.

How interesting I capitalized Google but not god. Does that say something about me, or something about Google? Like a Freudian slip...

Controlling the software market only brought Microsoft to the brink of world domination. The backlash has already begun against its successor, Wal-Mart. They both pervade into everyday life. They control and dictate their slice of the world, be it operating systems or the retail sector. There are believers and there are haters. Then there is the agnostic who have given up and simply accepts their necessary dominance. But they were about market share, and money.

Google deals in information. To eventually organize and mine the sum of human knowledge. It is absolutely incredible what the Google people have done with information. It has been said that genius is the ability to see connections where others see none. This is exactly what Google attempts to do, to make information more useful by creating links between them. So one tidbit leads to another. If a machine processes the sum of human knowledge, will the product be human intelligence? Are we not the sum of our own experience? I am actually scared of what Google may eventually do. How much will it know of every one of us. Yet, I am in love with its utility and impressed with each new function. I cannot look away.

I wonder how 'big' Google will get. Sure it's about market share, but does it count when it created the market? It started in websearch, but has grown so much farther beyond that than its competitors. Even the once ubiquitous Yahoo pales in comparison. Microsoft clings on with its MSN services, but it can't really touch Google. And sure Google is still about money, but not marketing directly to consumers like Microsoft and Wal-Mart. If anything, it uses the 'consumers' like you and I as a renewable resource to produce its products, which it sells to companies and advertisers. The stock has already tripled in value since IPO, to peak over $300USD per share; and this in a time when markets are tanking and some whispered recession.

So will we one day live with Google organizing our thoughts over WiFi? Will we relinquish our memories to it like I have done with this blog? Will we depend on it absolutely? Will it end, or will Google be the one to finally become bigger than God?



It's good to have a place to jot down my rants and rambles. And I expect this one to generate some discussion! So don't disappoint me and leave your thoughs in the comments below!