I ♥ Google – But Need Some Space
I love Google. I love Google even more than Prada or Jay-Z.
WHAT I LOVE?
I love Google going mobile. They’re doing massive amounts of geo location research, which will translate into me being able to live seamlessly offline and online, more effectively.
And I love the cloud apps: Gmail, Google Docs, NOT Buzz, because they’ve freed me from the CPU sucking burden that is Microsoft Office.
And I love Google attempting to provide the human race with 1 gig up. True data liberation that should be granted to all men and women, not just those with money.
I could go on, but I hate long blog posts. Most people know how ubiquitous Google is, and how smart. They’re real thinkers who care about what I care about. Most of them are around my age, I guess, or younger, and living everyday to innovate and liberate.
WHAT ABOUT IN 20 YEARS?
Most of us have been in relationships that start out great and end badly. We see only the good stuff, but somewhere along the line the other person changes. Or maybe we do. Either way, we want out and hopefully in the time between we didn’t give up too much of our personal power.
Couldn’t this happen with Google? Mightn’t they change, or us, and we want out?
At some point there will be a full employee turnover, has to be – people die or retire and are replaced. What if these new people have different ideas about privacy? What if they have less respect for the data we’ve so freely given Google?
Also, if Google is embedded in all of our media, won’t they have a little too much control of how we think, feel and act?
I’m not saying I want Google stop. I am saying that the ‘do no evil’ slogan might not be the slogan in 20 years, at least not in practice, and that we should start talking about the ramifications if/when that happens:
LET’S START A CONVERSATION (add your own questions in the comments)
- Do we want a private company to have as much or more power than the government?
- How can we create boundaries without slowing innovation?
♥ Add your own questions in the comments ♥
Google can not help but change. @Jack said yesterday in a tweet that wifi broadband needs to flow like water. I could not agree more. The easier it is for a company like Google to turn a profit the less motivation there will be for them to veer off of their current path.
I think that they are staying open. As long as that stays the case they are clear in my book and I will continue to use every product of theirs. I also think that the idea we have given them to much info is nonsense. Yahoo has just as much information about their users as google. The difference is that google has so much cash.
Facebook is the one that scares me. They have everyone in their network. Have you ever tried to delete your page? Pretty much impossible. It creeps me out big time. With google a couple clicks and you are gone!
i'm not as concerned with the data collection as them being embedded in all media
thus controlling how we think…
"With google a couple clicks and you are gone! "
@KB True. But Google doesn't delete any of that data from what I understand.