Google: Golden Boys or Evil Empire?

[Thank The Cheese]

For the longest time, Google has been the company that could do no wrong. Their search engine technology and contextural advertising services are not only innovative, but show an understanding of the Internet that many other companies miss.

Even when they became the billion dollar success they still somehow managed to keep that "just a couple of cool guys doing stuff for the net" kind of reputation.

In recent years, however, I'm wondering if this reputation is slowly crumbling, as Google spreads and conqours every inch of the Web.

First there were the obvious ones: extended search options like Scholar and Froogle. They also came out with toolbars and News sites and Chat rooms and forums. But that was expected - after all, these services were all centred around the search engine technology anyway. They were more like extentions that actual products or services.

But today they seem to be moving away from their Search Engine and into more significant battles. Google Base may try to rival eBay and Craig's List, Google Earth to rival privacy laws, Picasa to rival iPhoto and similar apps, gmail to rival Hotmail, and now there are rumors that Google will release their own line of PCs with their own Google Operating System (Google have denied this however).

I'm not trying to suggest Google are evil, I have no problem with google. So long as they succeed for the right reasons all the best to them. They have made it as far as they have by being the best at what they do, and being innovative and smart; they deserve their slice of the Net. I just think they are beginning a shift into a new era, where they're going to ruffle a few feathers (namely Microsoft). Many people are going to turn on them in the coming years as they start to monopolise the Internet further.

Just a few thoughts.

[Mikuro]

Well, Google just announced a video store with yet another form of DRM. Therefore, they are evil.

Yes, Apple is evil, too. But I really expect better from Google. This is the first thing they've done that tells me they're really about business.

[Satcomer]

I feel Google is starting to become the huge money machine like Microsoft is. Also they tend to treat Mac users and second class internet users. Evil no but fast becoming very inconsiderate to Mac users. They want to be the next Microsoft and have lost their way.

[adambyte]

No more evil than Yahoo! or other search engines which soon became web portals which soon expanded their services to more...

Isn't it always about the money?

[Viro]

Originally Posted by Mikuro

Well, Google just announced a video store with yet another form of DRM. Therefore, they are evil.

Yes, Apple is evil, too. But I really expect better from Google. This is the first thing they've done that tells me they're really about business.

That's not very fair to brand a company evil because it supports DRM. In order to distribute digital content, they need to agree to the terms of the content producers (i.e. the recording companies). If these companies want DRM, Google has to provide DRM.

[Mikuro]

Originally Posted by Viro

That's not very fair to brand a company evil because it supports DRM. In order to distribute digital content, they need to agree to the terms of the content producers (i.e. the recording companies). If these companies want DRM, Google has to provide DRM.

Well, they could:
A) Not offer a video store. (Heck, why should they if they're not going to do anything different? It hardly fits them.)
B) Offer a video store with content from people who agree to reasonable terms. They mentioned the variable pricing to better accomodate independant and student films. Starting a store with just that would be very cool, and could very well attract the attention of the Big Boys after time.
C) Try harder to convince the companies.
D) Create an open DRM scheme/protocol to ensure compatibility with a wide range of platforms.

After Larry Page (cofounder of Google) went on and on chastising most of the world for failing to create standards for things like power supplies and bluetooth interoperability, for them to bring out yet another proprietary, locked-up form of DRM system to do nothing but compete with every other one seems a little....well, evil. And completely un-called-for.

It certainly proves that they're not the ideological geeks they like to pretend they are.

[fryke]

Google is the typical wolf in sheep's clothing. Who ever expected them _not_ to be about business is just a little too naïve for this world, I guess. And after they've taken our "search", our "images", our "mail", our "maps" (talk about conquering "the world") and our "news", they're now going after "video" and "data in general". All your base are belong to Google.

I'm sure we'll see the day when Google claims _they're_ the real free encyclopedia. If wikipedia gets bashed enough in press (and they get a lot of that right now), the field opens again, and Google will hit.

The one _good_ thing about Google is that so far, their products have been good - or at least better than the rest. They got webmail right, they got search right etc. I don't really understand why they're adding a chat client or must open an online video store, but hey: It's probably just part of their world domination plan. Anything to squish Microsoft...

[Veljo]

Originally Posted by fryke

Google is the typical wolf in sheep's clothing. Who ever expected them _not_ to be about business is just a little too naïve for this world, I guess. And after they've taken our "search", our "images", our "mail", our "maps" (talk about conquering "the world") and our "news", they're now going after "video" and "data in general". All your base are belong to Google.

I'm sure we'll see the day when Google claims _they're_ the real free encyclopedia. If wikipedia gets bashed enough in press (and they get a lot of that right now), the field opens again, and Google will hit.

The one _good_ thing about Google is that so far, their products have been good - or at least better than the rest. They got webmail right, they got search right etc. I don't really understand why they're adding a chat client or must open an online video store, but hey: It's probably just part of their world domination plan. Anything to squish Microsoft...

Couldn't have said it better myself. I look forward to the day when someone, no matter who they are, squash Gates.