GOOGLE

I can certainly relate to Dan Firger in the sense that I use Google nearly every single day, except I really only use the actual search engine. With the exception of getting a gmail account for this class, I really have never used Google for anything outside of the search engine. Even with the introduction of Bing (the first ever “decision” engine) I still find myself with a preference for Google over any other search engine. I have been using Google to search the Internet ever since I was in middle school researching my History Day Project (which even back then it was far superior to any other method of research.) I definitely see Google entering the lives of my generation though, and don’t see the infiltration to level off anytime soon.

I liked that the article, namely Ohio State philosophy professor Donald Hubin, labeled Google as being run by the “good guys,” yet just like a founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, John Barlow states, there is no good vs. evil once the company is sold to the stockholders. The power of the company is now with the members who hold the stock. That being said, I had to do a research project in high school on the empire that is now Google, and the two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, genuinely had the people’s best interest at hand when starting the search engine. But as any company that gains massive amounts of capital so quickly, there is always money hungry people waiting to get a share through any means possible.

I’m not too familiar with Google’s advertising strategies, except that the Google ads that show up on the side of your browser have been directed at you through keyword searches and profile matches that you have while browsing. This definitely crosses the creepy border, but at the same time it isn’t terrible to have the ads tailored to you if you don’t mind seeing things that you might actually have interest in.

Google seems to own a lot nowadays, Youtube being the giant. I remember reading in Wired Magazine (I believe a 2006 issue) what the best inventions of the previous year were. Number one was Youtube, and they stressed how progression and ability to flourish almost depended on the users ENTIRELY. The users not only were responsible for creating the data and material that made the site viewable, but they also chose which videos were popularized, which in turn led the current state that Youtube is in. Back then, the magazine said that the website, after being in operation for one one full year, was being sold to Google for nearly two billion dollars. When I read that I just couldn’t imagine what it felt like to sell the rights to your website for almost two billion dollars, after only ONE year after starting it. That being said, Jeff has already posted the vast amount of things Google owns, so I won’t be redundant and just leave it at Google won’t be leaving us anytime soon.

Not only do I think that Google could get bigger, but I think that they will get bigger. When the company went public six years ago, it was ranked number 209 in terms of market cap when compared to companies around the world. Now, it’s moved all the way up to being the world’s 20^th largest public traded company by market cap. That hike is absolutely insane, and with the world relying more and more on mobile devices and being connected, I can definitely see this company having a bright future.

Google is “Aptocratic” in the very ways Siva Vaidhyanathan stated in his article. Not only is the population of people hired on the very students who have the ability to ace standardized tests and excel at other regimented processes (them being the Aptocrats), but the ways that links get priority when you search for a term depends on its ability to withstand the most complex of tests. Only the strongest links survive to flourish at the top of the page, which is exactly what everyone wants.

And as far as Yahoo! goes, I have almost always preferred Google. Like I said earlier, I have been using Google since I was in my young middle school years, so I have almost never used Yahoo! as a default search engine. That last time I used the website was for a stock market Economics project, and even then I got off of it and switched to Google at first chance.