Neomeme

Not to toot my own horn, but I’ve discovered an element of eerie prescience in my writing. First, I predicted Yahoo’s(and Dell’s) suggestion tool. And now, looking back through old posts, I’ve predicted Google’s Street View, which came out in May, in a post from January:

Add street-level photographs, contributed by users(like now-defunct A9 maps tried to do), and you have an accurate virtual representation of the world. Realistic virtual tourism certainly seems more plausible.

Now we hear about Google’s Street View fleet setting out to cover all of America. If anyone can pull off the seemingly impossible project of photographing every street in America, and presumably, eventually the world, it’s certainly Google.

And if you haven’t checked out Street View, do it now. It’s more than an incredible panorama of America or Google Maps in 3D- it’s also a source of infinite amusement.

So here’s my next prediction: Google Street View, or something like it, will soon become the next Second Life.

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. Read more »

Panoptic means all-seeing. And that, increasingly, is what our web is becoming. Every single thing we do online, every post, comment, and registered account has been indexed and catalogued. Google your name. Google the username you used on a forum five years ago. I bet you’ll be surprised at how many results you find, going back years and years. The web can see into every corner of your digital life- and so can anyone else who cares to look. Read more »