Google Mania

COMP1260 > Using the Internet

Introduction Today, Google is the most utilized search engine. But what else is Google today? Google is not just a search engine, it also offers Gmail, Gmaps, Google News, etc. Google provides a large amount of storage for email(about 7GB), which is very attractive when looking for an email provider. Google is quickly becoming one of the most powerful companies in the market today because people rely so much on Google to browse the internet.

...by students Hi my name is Justin, I am an avid Google user. I have Gmail, Chrome OS, and I search everything in Google. I believe it to be one of the best things ever created on the internet. A funny story when using Google was when I was searching for a title of a movie, that I couldn't remember the name of, I put "A vampire movie where humans are rare" into Google. The very first result gave me "Daybreakers". I was so happy I shed a tear, and I knew from that moment forward that I would never use another search engine again.

What Google Applications Do You Use?

Google offers a lot of applications, many of them, free. They are as follows:

Gmail – Email provider, you never have to delete an email again.

Google Chrome - Internet browser that is quickly gaining momentum.

Chrome OS - Google's new operating system for netbooks.

Google Android - Google's operating system primarily used in phones.

Orkut – Social networking site (like Facebook)

Google News – One of the top news sites on the web.

Blogger – The best blogging site out there.

Keyhole – Offers a satellite imaging service.

Google Desktop Search – A Google search bar for your desktop.

Google Adsense – Most widely used advertising service on the web.

-EDIT-
Matt D
Google Goggles - A phone application that allows searching the web based on a picture.
END EDIT

These are Google's main applications, and all of them are free except Google Adsense, which is for advertising and how Google makes a lot of their money. Google pretty much has an application for everything, and since so many people use their applications they have a good handle on what people are doing with their software. And they use this to their advantage.

What Does Google Know About You?

So what does Google know about you? Well the proper question would be what doesn’t Google know about you? They know a lot of information, and this is because of all of the data they catalog. Any email you ever receive in your Gmail account is cataloged and stored by Google. They also store data based on what is searched, and if you install Google Desktop Search it actually keeps track of every website you have ever visited. After gathering all of this information, Google has “robots” that parse the data to find out everything about you. Basically they know who you know, what you do, what you talk about, where you live etc. With Gmail and Orkut Google has more structure and detail than any regular email provider. And if you have Gmail you will notice there are ads on your page based on what you have searched on Google, and on what email you receive. This is pretty neat, but also a little scary. Google is powerful, and with great power comes great responsibility.

How Does Google Make Money?

Google has all of these applications, all of this data, and they know a heck of a lot about everybody. How do they afford all this? Well, in a nutshell Google's business model is built around advertising revenue. Google is a big player in the advertising scene; every time you search Google you see ads displayed along with your results. These sponsored ads generate a great deal of money for Google. Google describes these ads as “Google Adwords”. Along with displaying ads on their very own Google search engine, they have expanded this market to displaying ads on other websites. This application is called Google Adsense. Google gives some of the money to the webmaster and keeps the rest for itself.

Is Google Evil?

This a question everyone should ask themselves, and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. And yes when you type “Google is” into the Google search bar, the first auto completion suggestion is “Skynet”. This auto completion is based on what people have searched, and therefore proves that a lot of people have thought about the question “Is Google Evil?”. Google is quickly taking over the computer world, and only the future can really tell if they stay true. But there is no question that Google has done nothing but make our digital lives easier and hopefully they continue to do so.

References

Previous Page: The Digital Divide

Next Page: Net Neutrality