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Is anybody else 'scared' of Google?

1

156457

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 28, 2008
456
0
UK
I was thinking today about how Google is developing, and at the speed in which it is doing so. As silly as this sounds, it actually worries me a bit.

Think about it... first we had just Google Search, then we got Google Mail, then we got iGoogle, then we got the G1, then we got Google Chrome (browser) and soon we'll have the Chrome operating system. Also, with Google Wave upcoming, I'm beginning to believe Google might actually take over the web and computer industry and it's going to have quite an effect on our lives (say 5-10 years from now).

What does everybody else think? Are you scared of Google's position in the industry and how they might use it?
 
google has an effect on everyones lives everyday already.

wasn't the term "googled" added to the dictionary.

i did a report on google for school. they are set up around so many great people; like there is not a guy that works there that doesn't have a wealth of knowledge, that i can not see them taking a bigger hold of the whole computer industry.

making something "evil" is the only thing that could scare me.

edit: im a little drunk right now, if i didn't make any sense, tom.
 
Google frightens the crap out of me. Even if the leadership is 'honest and good' now, as they claim, no one group should be in charge of so much information. Think what Google could do if it one day decided to be evil. It could literally pick and choose companies to obliterate by messing with the search rankings. With latitude, they could begin tracking people. With gmail, they could start taking personal information and wrecking havoc.

Now I'm not saying they will do this. But just the fact they have the ability to do it scares me.

P-Worm
 
I don't like Google. At all.

They have some good products (Maps, analytics, etc) but overall I think the company is too big and has potentially too much information. They're Big Brother already, just without the evil motive (yet). Given that legal agreements all include that little line "Subject to change at any time and without notice" this can change overnight.
 
Meh. It's only a matter of time before you have no more privacy.
 
There's going to be some other startup in a few years time which will take over some of Google's share of influence, that's just the way it goes. And people will always want the lion's share of their information to be easy to access and relatively centralized; it makes it easier, and who wants things to be harder? If it's not Microsoft, it's Google; if it's not Google, it's Acme. etc etc etc.
 
I have a healthy distrust of them, just like I do any large corporation -- even Apple.
 
The government could pay Google trillions of dollars and get Google to give them ALL the private stuff. :eek: I don't think Google would do that though.
 
People thought the same thing about IBM, Microsoft, etc.

It's cyclical. The next up and comer is already out there, soon it will be huge and it will be Google that is throwing chairs.

Google has a lot of information because a lot of people give it away. There are way too many "public" records. Too many people willing to post something about themselves with no regard to how it will still be available 10 years from now. Too many website admins don't know how to prevent their network from being searched, which is why a LOT of security cameras are actually public, it's how people find credit card numbers, SSN numbers, etc.

It will come down to the old convenience vs. privacy fight, and convenience will always win with most of the people.
 
AngryApple said:
The government could pay Google trillions of dollars and get Google to give them ALL the private stuff. :eek: I don't think Google would do that though.
Click to expand...

Governments don't have to pay for it. Look at how AT&T rolled over in the USA and allowed monitoring equipment to be put on their network. Every piece of network traffic going through one of the biggest facilities could be scanned or copied if they wanted.

The Feds could just as easily walk up to the company and say we're putting this box on the end of your fiberoptic connection. You'll be offline for an hour. Have a nice day.
 
Rumor has it that they have a new search engine for your brain.... J/K

But in all seriousness the way they are cataloging/developing just about darn near everything scares me a little to think that thought reading/sorting along with global takeover could be next. :eek:
 
Doesn't really worry me. The G1 phone sucked and who wants to develop programs for it when you can get paid to do it for the iphone. Even though it's still early I don't think it's gonna take anything away from the iphone. As for the Google OS I'm not too worried. Maybe if I was a windows user but not a mac user.
 
Google Microsoft = evil
Apple good
yeah right.
Apple and Microsoft have more info about me than I really care for. But in order to have an xbox live account, various other MS accounts, an iPhone and an iTunes account I had to provide some/a lot of personal information. Any of these companies can turn around and change their privacy policies. What can we do with the info we volunteered, ask for it back?
Why focus fear at google and not mention apple and others in the same breathe?
 
Hell, atleast Google hasn't taken to █████████ █████ ███ █████ being ████ ██████ ████ █ ████ bad, ████ ████ ██████ they're ███ █████ ████ ████ ██████ ███ ████████ awesome.

This post was hosted by Google Censorship
"Keeping you safe, whether you like it or not!"​
 
I don't find the thought of increased Google dominance very scary at all. In fact, so far, they've not made much of an impression outside of search. That could change if Android really takes off, and Apps, but so far, so limited.

Anything that challenges the dominance of Microsoft can't be a bad thing. That's not a Microsoft-hater comment, that's a competition is good comment.
 
"Don't be evil."
-Google

As it stands, they aren't evil. However, who's to say that in 5-6 years they won't be taken over? Schmidt and the others may be rotated out and eventually the "Don't be evil" will lose to the majority. All it would take is over half of the board members to be susceptible.

And while I do everything on Google now, tomorrow I can jump to someone else just as easy.
 
Apple is one of the few corporations that I do somewhat trust. Not because I'm a raging fanboy (which I'm not), but simply from what I've seen from their business practices, they do protect their users (against DRM on iTunes, no serials, activation or genuine disadvantage). And I can identify with their corporate culture (it's not about marketshare, it's about making a great product that changes the product landscape, and making a shed load of cash from it).

Google on the other hand. They scan all of your emails for one (to offer relevant ads so they say). And from their business practices (mail, documents, youtube), it looks like they're in a position to, and are attempting to acquire a lot of data from their users. And half of this crap doesn't make them a single dime (youtube breaks even). And without turning into a conspiracist, it does make me wonder if there is a more sinister motive behind it.
 
Technophobia

In the 1870s American newspapers printed stories about how the noise from steam locomotives running on the new-fangled railroad systems that were being built throughout the county would surely cause cows' milk to turn sour and chickens to stop laying eggs.
 
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