Google offers competitive programs

By Devang Joshi

Webmaster

Graphic by Courtney Niskala • niskalac@thejohnsonian.com

 Google is now much more than the novel search engine it once was- you remember, the website that let you find other websites. But if you’re like me, you’re thinking 1996 was a LONG time ago, and we can forget the nostalgia of Google’s past and move on to the new Google. It’s bigger, it’s better and it’s shinier.

But in all seriousness, the Google of today is a totally different beast, and the company has found a way to get into EVERY aspect of the computing world.

What does this mean? Is it a good thing? Does this mean I’ll be toting a “Google chip” in my forearm sometime soon…maybe?

To really understand the good versus the bad on Google, you have to take a look at what Google provides to you, the user, and in providing those services, what does Google take away from the rest of the world’s tech companies?

Let’s start with a short list of what Google provides to people around the world:

Search, Alerts, Blog Search, Books, Checkout, Google Chrome, Custom Search, Desktop, Directory, Earth, Finance, GOOG-411, Google Health, iGoogle, Images, Maps, News, Patent Search, Product Search, RealtimeNew!, Scholar, Toolbar, Trends, Videos, Web Search, Web Search Features, Code, Labs, Blogger, Calendar, Docs, Google Mail, Groups, Knol, Orkut, Picasa, Reader, Sites, SketchUp, Talk, Translate, VoiceNew!, YouTube, Mobile, Maps for mobile, Search for mobile, Pack

Mind you all of that is free, and it’s no surprise Google is such a big deal. For example, we all get on YouTube; some of you have probably already visited the site multiple times while checking your Gmail or searching for something using your Google toolbar. Or perhaps you downloaded Google Chrome and are using it to update your blog, provided by Blogger of course.

This begs the question, is being so homogeneous in your tech world OK? What are we missing out on?

Well for starters, there may be new and exciting technologies coming out that will never make it past the huge corporate beast that is Google. In a sense, this flashes back to about a decade ago when our old friend Microsoft (you remember him, right) was under fire for being a monopoly and not allowing other companies to enter the market. This is similar to the situation Google is creating.

In addition, the Internet world is becoming more and more dependent on Google, and who knows, the days of “free” may disappear one day once Google has banished its corporate competitors out of the Internet domain.

Is this good or bad? Well, that’s really up to you. If you are one to support the little guy, go ahead and delete your Gmail account, never visit YouTube and start using Bing.com. But if you’re like me and cannot get away from Goodg, I’ll save you a spot in line behind me, you know, for the “Google chip” that’s coming out next month. I hear it’s shiny.