What If Google Was Evil? Plus: Five Inventions of the Google Future
What If Google Was Evil? Plus: Five
Inventions of the Google Future
Google repeated their mantra in the statement attached to their IPO
filing in 2004, when Larry Page wrote “Don’t be evil.” This was to
remind us what the big G strives to avoid. And some might already be
scared. We don’t like to switch tools all the time, and put trust into
things served by Google.com. Google may be our website host
(Blogger.com), our community (Orkut), our paycheck (AdSense), and
last not least our search engine. But we are ready to watch for the signs
– and as Google also repeatedly states, other sites are just one click
away.
So let’s ask ourselves: what if... Google was evil?
Google front-page now a portal
The Google search engine has somewhat lost its focus on search. The box is still
centered and clearly visible, but there are a dozen new services surrounding it. Such
as dating, movies, chat, games, and what-not. Obviously the new mantra is: Don’t
rely on search alone. People are reminded of AltaVista, and not in a good way.
Google Gmail with in-between ads and new
connections to homeland security
Gmail usability and privacy corner stones – ads being unobtrusive, and conversations
not being passed on to third parties – are suddenly ignored for worse. Gmailers are in
trouble and go back to Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, or good old snail mail. Others simply
go to jail.
