Happy 10th birthday to Google – an event celebrated by the creation of thousands more web pages about Google that Google can search for you. So here’s another one – 10 nice and nasty things about the most influential web site in the world.
Nice: The simplicity
At the heart of Google’s success is the elimination of complexity and those awful cluttered portals that we used in the early days of the web. A clean white screen, with a simple white box, and beyond it is everything you need to find on the internet. This has been perhaps the biggest factor in Google’s success, and also a critical element of making the web the global phenomenon it has become. Google has eliminated techno-fear among the masses and brought the complex nature of the internet to a non-technically aware audience.
Nasty: Advertising dominance
Google is still trumpeted as the anti-Microsoft, but how long before its dominance of the online search advertising market makes it a target for the same enemies of monopolism that dragged Microsoft through the courts? Google’s growing share of global advertising spend – in all forms – is changing the media landscape, and not always for the better.
Nice: Do no evil
Google’s corporate motto promised a new era of compassionate capitalism, and even when it entered the stock market the company’s off-the-wall approach to its dealings with Wall Street pleased users and shareholders alike.
Nasty: China
Human rights activists such as Amnesty International are still up in arms about Google’s acceptance of censorship for its Chinese web site. Critics say that the internet is such a force for good in human rights that to accede to the wishes of a repressive regime makes a mockery of Google’s good intentions elsewhere.
Nice: All the world’s information
Google’s stated aim to “organise the world’s information” offers the ultimate democratisation of knowledge and learning. At its simplest, how handy is it to resolve those arguments or remember those half-forgotten song lyrics in seconds with a Google search? One of the most-used phrases by web users the world over must be: “What did we do before Google?”
Nasty: Copyright and intellectual property infringement
Google has trodden on plenty of toes with plans to digitise books, reproduce news content, and the availability of copyrighted content on YouTube. Accessing all the world’s information is a great thing – but much of that content does actually belong to people, many of whom make a living out of it.
Nice: Larry and Sergey
Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have managed to combine the geek-made-good image of Bill Gates with the coolness of Steve Jobs – but avoided the monopolist criticisms made of Microsoft’s founder and the smugness of Apple’s chief. Two smart guys with a bright idea who made good – everything Silicon Valley was meant to be about.
Nasty: Eric Schmidt
Google’s chief executive is the man who brings cold-hearted capitalism to the wacky Googlisms. Schmidt is the corporate rottweiler, there to stand up to Microsoft’s pitbull chief executive Steve Ballmer. And his background at Novell – a company that never recovered from Microsoft taking over its established market – means there is a score to settle with Redmond.
Nice: Free software
Free wordprocessing, free spreadsheets, free email, free web browser, free video – Google is not afraid to invest the billions it makes from advertising into a blatant attempt to change the software industry and slowly destroy Microsoft’s cash cows. The products aren’t perfect – but they are generally good enough, and if concerns over security and quality can be overcome, Google could lead the computing world into the cloud.
Nasty: Data collection
The biggest threat to Google’s future are the growing concerns over privacy, data protection and the use of our personal information. Just what exactly does Google do with all the information it compiles about each of us from our search profiles? How much can it learn by scanning the contents of our Gmails? And as more people use Google Apps to store personal documents and financial spreadsheets, what is being done to allay Big Brother fears over correlation of disparate data sources and how much marketing and advertising firms can find out about us? Microsoft knows this is its rivals weak spot, and the next version of Internet Explorer will include a function to prevent historic search data from being collected by Google.
What do you think? Let us know your top likes and dislikes about Google and join in the 10th birthday fun
