[Infowarrior] - Google and "world domination"

[Richard Forno]

Google once reviled computer superpowers but domination is just what  
it is achieving

What's a nice firm like you doing ruling the world?

By Emily Dugan
Sunday, 7 September 2008

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/google-once-reviled-computer-superpowers-but-domination-is-just-what-it-is-achieving-921451.html

There are not many companies whose trade names have become verbs. And  
there must be even fewer who would view this as a cause for concern.  
But when Google entered the dictionary in 2006, the directors seemed  
furious. Instead of celebrating their status as the ultimate household  
name, they were found muttering darkly about "brand dilution" and the  
company's future.

As Google celebrates its 10th birthday this week – just days after the  
announcement of its very own web browser – the reasons for this early  
frustration have become abundantly clear. What started as a plucky  
search engine set up by two students in a garage is now one of the  
world's most powerful companies, whose reach extends far beyond the  
web searches that made its name and into almost every way in which the  
internet is used.

Now Google has become a symbol of the internet as a whole. A YouGov  
survey published last week found that Britons suffered from  
"discomgooglation" – a term used to describe how lost people feel if  
they can't get on the internet.

Responding to the survey, more than three-quarters of internet users  
in the UK said they could not live without the web. More than 50 per  
cent also found the internet more important than religion.

The discomgooglation statistics were telling, but it was the term  
itself that revealed the power of the company.

Following the launch of web services such as Gmail, Google Maps and  
Google Earth, not to mention its acquisition of You- Tube, Google is  
looking more and more like the computing giants it set itself up to  
oppose. And the new Google Chrome browser is the most aggressive  
example of this so far.

Last week a comic book detailing why Chrome would be faster and better  
than its competitors was "accidentally" leaked, creating a storm of  
interest in the media. It was the most direct attack on Microsoft to  
date, coming at a time when its eighth version of Internet Explorer  
had been previewed (with little media attention) just days before.

In the company's early days, its chief executive, Eric Schmidt, said  
Google would not need its own browser. He added that there was no plan  
to take on Microsoft with online versions of applications because they  
did not provide as good an experience as desktop software. But all  
that changed two years ago when Google released a succession of online  
applications to rival Microsoft's – culminating in last week's launch  
of Chrome.

Google justified this foray into the final area of the internet not  
yet under its control by saying it wanted something that would work  
well with its existing facilities. "Everything we do is running on the  
web platform," said co-founder Larry Page. "It's very important to us  
that that works well."

But others believe there was a very different motivation. In the test  
version of Internet Explorer 8, there appeared to be a feature that  
might block Google's targeted advertising. Given that 99 per cent of  
the company's annual revenue is made from advertising, this could hold  
the key to the company's sudden interest in expanding into the brow- 
ser market.

In many ways it is misleading to think of Google as an internet giant;  
it is primarily an advertising giant. By enticing users with free  
content and programs, it has been able to provide space for  
increasingly targeted adverts that have proved highly lucrative. Now  
40 per cent of all online advertising is controlled by Google – a  
monopoly that it has good reason to defend.

Today, Google has a $16.6bn (£9.4bn) annual revenue, $4.2bn of which  
is profit. But its increasing domination of the market is making  
people uneasy.

In July two of the company's web engineers said they had registered  
the trillionth web page available via the search engine. While some  
marvelled at how the internet had grown, others were alarmed by the  
potential power of a company that holds such a wealth of information  
about our lives.

Its unofficial motto "Don't be Evil", which has been at the heart of  
the company's code of conduct since its inception, is looking  
increasingly flimsy as it goes about the business of world domination.  
And Google has noticed this too. In a recent interview the company's  
vice-president, Marissa Mayer, began the back-track, saying "Don't be  
Evil" had never been and would never be an elected or ordained motto.

Inside the Googleplex, the glass-clad HQ in California, they keep  
their staff loyal with generous services and a laid-back atmosphere.  
But for all the wholesome, beanbag-strewn offices, Google is turning  
into a menacing presence that is using increasingly aggressively  
tactics to stay above its rivals.

When Larry Page and Sergey Brin sat in that Californian garage in  
1998, dreaming up a business that could be different from Microsoft,  
it is doubtful they were envisaging becoming more aggressive than Bill  
Gates's behemoth. But all the coloured beanbags and free lunches in  
the world could not disguise the tide of feeling that turned against  
the company when they announced Chrome last week.

When The Drudge Report linked to news wires about Chrome last week, it  
was under the headline "Domination". No longer "the little company  
that made good", the extent of Goo-gle's power is provoking fear and  
anger in the tech community.

Bill Stewart, the internet historian and founder of  
livinginternet.com, said Google's image took a nosedive last week.  
"There has been a tremendous amount of goodwill for Google but the  
announcement of the browser is a tipping point.

"It indicates that they are out to dominate and are mimicking their  
worst enemy: Microsoft. There has been a change in sentiment. The  
goodwill has evaporated and turned to concern."

The European Parliament is already scrutinising Google for potential  
invasion of privacy and copyright. Meanwhile, copyright lawsuits have  
flooded in for YouTube's use of video clips, and there have been court  
battles over content stored on Google News and Google Books.

But it is privacy that now seems to be sparking the most concern. With  
every Google search collated and recorded, it is not surprising that  
the public are uneasy about the company. Google will not say if it has  
ever given information gathered from its services to the police, but  
with such a substantial database, it could be an incredibly powerful  
tool.

After a public outcry, Google ceased to store information about the  
world's internet habits for life – now they are held for just 18  
months. But many are still concerned.

"I'm worried about Google and I think a lot of people are increasingly  
worried", says Mr Stewart. "They set up a structure to avoid the  
mistakes of others, but I've noticed a marked difference in the last  
year. It would appear they're turning into their enemy. There's  
tremendous concern about the information they hold."

And concern about data stored from the search engine is just the  
beginning. One of its newer ventures, Google Street View, makes  
government CCTV surveillance look amateur.

Already in place in cities around America and Europe, the company has  
taken photographs of 360-degree street views that can be viewed as  
part of Google Maps and Google Earth. Residents in San Francisco were  
alarmed to realise they could zoom in on their own houses so closely  
that they could see the people inside.

Ten years on from those first tentative attempts to catalogue the  
internet, Google's services are available in 112 languages. You can  
even search in Klingon – the Star Trek dialect of choice for geeks the  
world over.

Until now, Google's light-hearted approach and brightly coloured  
branding has wooed the world into believing it is no more than a  
friendly provider of useful information. But while the company  
continues its rapid expansion into every aspect of our online lives,  
the implications of Google's reign over the internet could be  
distinctly less bright.

Ten ways to take over the web...

1. Google Earth: shows images of the Earth and even the galaxies,  
using satellite imagery and aerial photography.

2. Google Street: gives street- level images of cities in the US and  
Europe, with 360 degree- views.

3. Google Maps: provides directions to destinations, and street maps  
which can be a hybrid of a map and aerial view.

4. Gmail: free email accounts accessible from any computer with  
internet access. Funded using targeted advertising that searches  
users' mail.

5. Chrome browser: launched last week, Google has boasted that this  
will be the fastest browser, showing thumbnails of favourite sites and  
shortcuts to web applications.

6. YouTube: free website which that users upload, view and share video  
clips.

7. Google News: aggregates news stories from more than 4,500 English  
language news sites, and can be customised according to readers'  
interests.

8. Google Books: selects books that match search terms. Lets you  
browse the books online and, in some cases, download the full text.

9. Documents and spreadsheets: free documents that can be integrated  
into other applications to share information on a real-time basis.

10. Google Android: this software platform and operating system for  
mobiles could be a major challenger to the iPhone.