http://www.alexpooley.com/2008/03/26/google-the-god-of-data/
For some reason I have been wondering who(or what) is the God of Data, or who it should be, as in a mythological person type thing (is that proper English?). I did a search (on google, yes) and found the link above as the first hit, because it seems to be the only page with that title. From the old days you have other Gods as explained here. Currently there is no question that Google is the biggest data monger and is the company others are trying to be. Google has crawlers for the whole net and cached versions of pages kept for who knows how long, no doubt in redundant locations. This along with millions of users' emails accounts each with a capacity of over 7 GB put them in control of an almost unimaginable amount of data. I really hope those negative predictions of them from years ago do not come through. Those predictions were from 5 or more years ago, before Latitude, Maps, Earth, Sky, Blogger, Youtube, Books, Voice, Chrome, Android, Docs, Calendar, Video, Apps marketplace, Code, fee based storage, free email and Sites, etc etc... I probably missed a few too but that is a long list of well used services that has given them more reach than anyone else right now. Microsoft has tried and failed with their remade search engine aka Bing, it looks and maybe even 'feels' better than Google but it does not return results as well. The fact that 'google' was officially made a verb says the company is a household name.
This young generation does not know a world without it, and nothing is wrong with that. Knowledge should be easily accessible to everyone.So far they have seemingly managed to walk the right path for data management. Apps for every kind of device have been put out to make accessing Google easier. They have followed orders to censor sites by the Chinese government although they turned that around recently. It is also quite likely that they work hand in hand with the US and European governments to at least monitor traffic. The Gmail service went down twice that I remember last year but with no reported loss of data, though I'm sure some productivity was lost. Android has so far been a big hit and looks like it will continue to gain momentum as more people see it in action from friends and devices start to come down in prices. I am a fan of their services as they usually get it right, although Wave and Buzz have seemed to not quite cut it.
This article talks about Facebook vs Google. It has been and will continue being a bitter battle as both companies offer unique services but both are chasing revenue from targeted ads. Facebook has work hard to hide its data from Google and you can't blame them as Google digs pretty deep into sites. I can see that the Facebook version of search in the future will be more useful as search results will be more 'localised' with opinions from friends and other people in your region. If they add the depth and scope of a Google search they may have the winning formula down the road. Facebook too keeps data cached and with over 400 million active users it has an astonishing amount of data to dig into. I think one key selling point for both companies is their services are mostly free, you pay for extras but even then it is still cheap.
In the future we can expect apparently a much more diverse set of services from Google. Health (or whatever the name is) will likely be a place to keep your medical records and related data in a central place easily accessible when you need it. Google Energy is going to expand most likely into something on a grand scale and at least allow Google to perhaps be self sufficient and maybe even be able to sell the excess energy. Facebook will eventually allow parental controls and be a serious search engine. It is definitely something exciting to follow.
Both companies trace your movement on the internet, keeping note of where you go, when, for how long and what you say as in the case of your emails being read in Gmail and ads displayed accordingly.Neither of them will ever give up ownership of their data, Google is more open about letting users transfer out and export data but it still keeps it afterwards, Facebook locks you into their site and keeps all data indefinitely.
Right now Google is probably the winner but the battle is on and it will be one of the greatest battles ever.
nice review
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