Neomeme

I read an interesting article today about a loss of trust stemming from greater scrutiny of Google being potentially problematic for the company. Google has changed from two guys in a garage with a Don’t Be Evil philosophy to a massive, corporate behemoth, that plays a larger and larger role in our lives every day. Starting as a humble search engine, Google has muscled its way into every aspect of our digital lives. They have not done this through unfair business practices or sneaky tactics. Google has taken over our digital lives through superior technology and free services. But it has taken over our digital lives nonetheless.

Is this Google?

Those who try to live without Google, to see if they can describe it as “hell online”. We do not always realize it, but Google has, over a few short years, become one of the most powerful corporations in history. It singlehandedly carries all of Web 2.0 on its back. Starting as a simple search engine, Google has exploded to offer 116 different products, many of them market leaders, many of them incredibly innovative, almost all of them at an unbeatable price: free.Not long ago, 19 of the top 100 websites in the world were Google. Add in other Google acquisitions, and now you see Google owns 26 of the top 100. One single company, through technology and a voracious appetite for acquisitions controls over a quarter of the most popular sites on the Internet. Compare that to only 3 of the top 100 each for Yahoo, Microsoft, and eBay.

And Google’s healthy appetite for acquisitions is growing- they have all of Web 2.0 to finance, after all. In 2003 and 2004 Google made 6 acquisitions. In 2006 they acquired 9 companies, including YouTube. They have already surpassed that number with 11 acquisitions in the first half of 2007, including $3.1 billion for Doubleclick. And did I mention that Google owns 5% of AOL and its CEO sits on the board of Apple?

Source: Wikipedia. Chart created with Google Spreadsheets.

There is no doubt that Google controls an enormous part of not only the digital lives of consumers, but also of the world’s communication. E-mail, blogs, searches, and perhaps soon phone calls travel, largely, through Google. But should we be worried that one single entity has such a stranglehold on much of the entire Internet? I don’t think so.

Look at how friendly and innocent those bright colors are. You can trust them.

Google is successful because its technologies are superior. Its continued success attracts the brightest engineers, ensuring more superior technologies in the future, and more market domination. Google has no incentive to break our trust, and they know it. Google’s intentions are pure- they want to change the Internet for the better. No need to fight it- we’ve already seen with everything from Google Search to Gmail that their way is the best. The Google way is the best way. Google is the only major Web 2.0 company that is continuously innovating. The choice now is not “The Google way or the (information super) highway”. The choice is simply this: “The Google way or nothingness.” Which wold you pick: Google technologies, or stagnation? After all, Google is the only major innovator. And if anyone else innovates, Google will just buy them. Google can make you an offer you can’t refuse.

So I am not concerned about the growth of Google. This is not a sketch of a distant Google future. A world of Google services is already upon us, and Google, like a strong and caring Big Brother is watching out for us. We’re already living in an very Google-dominated world, and it’s not so bad, is it? Remember, Google can do no evil. They said so themselves.

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