Google fascination
Google has become such a phenomenon that people have pretty much forgotten which other search engines are available on the Internet. A question was posed in my New Media class,
“What tools do you use to do research?”
Even though the replies included Wikipedia and online library resources, first on most of my classmates’ list was Google.
But why is Google so popular? Why has it become so dominant that despite having a web address (URL) online users still ‘Google’ it?
A brief timeline of how it started:
Co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page meet in 1995. In 1998 Google became a business answering 10 000 queries a day. In 2000 the company becomes the largest search engine with 18 million queries a day. In 2004 Google goes public.
Google has produced a range of products that keeps its users coming back for more. Because it has become so well known, it stands to reason that many online users would just ‘Google’ information. Google just keeps growing and growing, from free email (Gmail), Google alerts (email updates of Google results based on a specific query) and book searches to mobile applications.
The announcement of the Google-Yahoo! deal referred to in my last post, caused a huge stir among organisations such as the World Association of Newspapers that opposed the deal.
Another development within Google is the idea of making old newspapers accessibleto users through Google news archives. This will allow users to view scans of newspapers published before the web era.
With all these products under Google’s belt there are still those who feel Google should not be relied on too much.
Camilla Mehlsen mentions in one of her articles, academics like Jude Carroll feel that Google has created a ‘Google generation’. Information is so readily available, students just ‘Google’ the topic. The problem arises when instead of attributing the information the student simply copies and pastes it resulting in plagiarism.
Users should be aware that Google keeps records of their online where abouts. It does this so that if need be, officials can see where a user has been. The privacy policy is available on Google.
The focus on Google and privacy or Google and human rights offers a valuable space for discussion. What happens when a globe spanning giant like Google inevitably begins to exploit the data it has available on its users’ searches, documents, friends and relations?
It would have been good to focus on one idea and stick to it.
Jude Mathurine
October 7, 2008