Ubiquity, thy name is Google. Seriously. From the Washington Post (internal links omitted), here are some thoughts on Google from Colbert Report writer Rob Dubbin:
Just Let Me Check One Last Thing . . .
24 HOURS WITHOUT GOOGLE
By Rob Dubbin
Sunday, September 7, 2008I wish Google didn’t make me think of tentacles. It never did before I tried avoiding it for 24 hours — a doomed exercise that began as a challenge and morphed into a horror show.
This was supposed to be a birthday present to the Internet’s reigning brand — admittedly, an odd sort of gift for a company that so thrives on participation. Ten years ago today, on Sept. 7, 1998, Google was officially incorporated, beginning its historical march to ubiquity from a Silicon Valley garage. What better way to celebrate Google’s dominance — search, e-mail, chat, maps, news, calendars, Mars– than to abstain from its services entirely?
. . .
Just last weekend, Google made another splash by taking the multicolored curtain off Chrome, an open-source, state-of-the-art Web browser that promises to greatly increase the performance of data-rich applications such as Google Maps. It also promises to make Chrome the platform upon which future applications are designed to run, potentially squeezing out competitors less willing to innovate. I really hope this helps Google find whatever unholy pattern of human behavior they’re looking for, because the next step from here is demanding that we simply hand over our brains.
. . .
It really is a little horrifying to think about just how much I use Google and its products. The scared s#!tless little soul inside of me that still cares about privacy wants to make like an ostrich every time discussion of Google’s data retention comes up.
So … thanks, Rob, for that little panic attack. But hey, you made me laugh (however ruefully) in the process, which is an impressive feat that just proves to me that you’re employed in exactly the right career. Bravo!
(Tip of the hat to loudfan for the link!)
I have absolutely sold my soul to Google, and it scares me on a regular basis. But between my dependence on Gmail, my regular use of YouTube (no, not for Colbert videos), the Google related features on my iPhone, and of course the search engine, I estimate I use a Google product probably every 5-15 minutes depending on if I’m at work or not.
*shiver*
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It’s so funny that the title of Rob’s article is the exact thing I say in my head just before I Google something.
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