27 December 2010

Google's Bonne Annee 2010?

Perhaps the Professor has been too hard on Google of late. I might sound a bit curmudgeonly. Have I been too hard on those nice fresh faced boys and girls of the Googleplex? You decide.

2010 marks a watershed year for Google in the way that 1995 marked a watershed year for Microsoft. But for veracity in this evaluation I have to turn to none other than Robert X Cringely in his analysis of Google.

He cites the following missteps. I will list them for you but you can go and read his analysis here:


Consider if you will the following examples:

China. Per Robert X "In fact, Google came up with 1.3 billion reasons why Chinese censorship wasn't so bad after all."

Nexus One.Now replaced with Nexus 5 which makes you wonder what happened to Nexuses 2 through 4. I loaned a Nexus one for 4 weeks. It was Terrible.

Streetview Wi-Fi spying. "The worst part: Google was doing this without even realizing it. What other data is Google hoovering up that it -- and no one else -- yet realizes?"

Google Wave. Sadly will be incorporated into other Google products

Google TV.

Google's Proposed Take over of ITA Software.

But perhaps the most scary thing of all things emanating from the Googleplex was this analysis in the same article.

"Meanwhile, whenever Eric Schmidt opens his mouth to make another pronouncement about what Google knows about us, he frightens the children and makes even their parents want to hide under their beds. Consider this chilling statement Schmidt made at the last Mobile World Congress in February:

QUOTE:
"These networks are now so pervasive that we can literally know everything if we want to. What people are doing, what people care about, information that's monitored, we can literally know it if we want to, and if people want us to know it. END QUOTE.


I leave you to ponder the rest.

Cheers

No comments: