I believe that it seeks further expansion, and if what the CEO of google recently said, and the corporation does have a "300 year plan" then I don't think there is much argument against that fact. Why should an internet company expand into the production of cars, cell phones, wind turbines and genetics?
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Big Scary Google
Yesterday Tim, Ryan, Nat and I presented on Google. Doing some research on Google made me realize the extent to which this corporation rules the internet. Now I realize "rules" is a very extreme word to use, but I feel in the context of the argument it fits. Although they are by no means the hegemonic entity of the internet, it would seem that they are moving in that direction. The expansion that google has gone through in the past 11 years is unheard of in my generation, and even more so in the scope of internet companies. Google began as a simple search engine, but now has many more arms to it's repertoire.
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You guys did a really good job. It might have been good to highlight a bit more the fact that Google owns You Tube and how this makes it dominant in video distribution on the web.
ReplyDeleteThe question of hegemony is important. It's clearly the hegemonic search engine--it's like a joke to imagine using anything else.
And here's the thing: we didn't vote for Google to rule the internet. We like to use it for searches. There's a difference between these two things yet it's becoming harder and harder to keep this difference visible.
I guess Google wants to expand their power beyond just the internet. Recently, I was reading an article how Google is joining billionaire Richard Branson to explore the deepest parts of the oceans. Together with Google's Earth software, the data collected will be shown to the public. Richard Branson is planning to go solo. All of the collected data will be form of images and videos that Google will stream through their program. Here's a link to learn more about it:
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.forbes.com/clareoconnor/2011/04/05/richard-branson-and-google-to-map-ocean-floor/?partner=fbwall
That Googleland complex we saw makes me think if their employees are drones. In the same breath, it looks like a cool place to work, I just might apply for a summer internship there.
ReplyDeleteGoogle is not only a master of the internet game, but a master of branding, which we've talked about several times in class. Think about what you see when you go to Google.com, you see "Google" and a white search text field - that's it. Google, as we all know, is a verb - to Google something.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you see on their competitors home pages? A bunch of other useless information that people don't want. You really don't want to see how many emails you have while you're searching for something quickly, such as Yahoo! would argue.
Google's dominance comes from their speed and the idea that that is where you go to search.
There are other things to be said about their other branches, but I wanted to get my thoughts out about the main search engine.