The Almighty Google
 

In an attempt to get a bit more activity, I'm starting a new topic! :D

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Google, the brainchild of Sergey Brin and Larry Page, was incorporated in 1998, and focused on search the Internet. Since then, Google has grown in leaps and bounds, with many services such as GMail, Google Docs and Google Maps emerging over its eleven year life. Recently, the giant announced their operating system, Google Chrome OS, after much speculation that their mobile phone OS, Android, would be announced for laptops and desktop computers.

From humble beginnings as a personal project in 1996, Google has evolved into a key part of the modern world, but many people hate it.

The question: is Google getting too big?

It's meant to be slightly ambiguous to get more discussion.

Go on, give me your thoughts.

In all seriousness, I think it could use a filter at the very least.

I think that it's wonderful Google is going to take over the world. Not only is it going to be easy for me to access any information at any given time, this modernized SkyNet is going to probably one day own the programming for our vehicles, houses, computers, cell phones, all forms of communication. And what will they do then? Oh, what every company does when they turn greedy and go to earn some more bucks, add some fees!

As long as Google stays free for most services, I have no issues with it. Once they start to charge money is where the problem will begin. At this point they are solely making money off of advertisers, and have done greatly thus far. Once they start to charge the consumer things may change a bit, and they may turn into a monopolizer in the market, as most feel they have done now. Only problem is as of yet, they don't charge for almost anything.

I would tend to agree with D3v. I kinda like how Google does lots of free and open-source type stuff, because it's a good way to promote the development of great things. Once they start trying to own everything I'll have a problem with it. For now, I think Google does a lot of good.

In my mind, the only way the Internet is going to progress in any meaningful way is if Google do it - not only do they have the infrastructure for something amazing, and not only do they have some of the best programmers in the world working for them, but they do more or less everything for free.

I'd be happy to pay a few pounds a month to use a Google service, because I know I'm getting quality, and I can't find the same standard anywhere else.

As for them getting too big, well, let's face it, if Google sneezes then the whole world knows about it. For the moment, I believe they could do with reigning themselves in a little, and focusing on some of their more promising products and projects, but when the world economy has recovered enough for them to do so, Google should get into as high a gear as possible and run with everything.

So how much longer before Google monopolizes technology in general. They bought some $850 million marketing firm just yesterday and are set to still release their OS in the future.

Android is gaining steam (and analysts predict it will be second only to Symbian by 2011, with about 30% of the market share), they've recently announced that 47 airports in the US will have free WiFi until January 15th 2010, and Wave is freakin' awesome!

The firm they acquired yesterday was AdMob, I believe - a marketing firm who specialise in mobile advertisements.

I can't wait for the inevitable Google takeover! :D

This topic seems vaugely familiar...

I dunno. I like google because they're festive with the layouts and such. Plus, I hate every other search engine, so... google4life.

we are all willing to our ignorance, we must be brainwashed

Actually, Google makes money through contracts with buisinesses to provide Software as a Service. Many buisinesses have contracted with Google to use Google Docs instead of MS office, for instance. An even bigger group has contracted with Google to run their corporate e-mail.

My university's e-mail system is being transitioned to a gmail implementation.

Mdselctr, give D3V his account back. :o

Google set to replace your telephones..

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/11/13/g...ice/index.html

http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/2009/TEC....google.gi.jpg

How exactly do you get paid, if you work for google?

Advertisements.

http://www.daniweb.com/news/story238775.html


Not that one should seriously expect any of the top 1000 sites on Google to give much thought to an offer of $1M for their exclusion.

So, what exactly do you do if you work for google? Programing, technical support... what?
I was considering working for them, before I decided to die. If, by chance, someone stops me, and medicates me, I might get a job there.

Google are so big that, should the top 1000 sites leave Google's index, 1000 other sites will rise to take their places, and the original 1000 will see a massive drop in visits. I only know one person that doesn't use Google, and that's because he's 50-odd, and can't work out how to get to Google from his homepage - Yahoo!.

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Google's main source of revenue is ads, Skurai. As WW mentioned, they also dabble in SaaS - Google Docs work, are fantastic for collaboration between multiple sites, and are a lot cheaper than similar solutions from companies like Microsoft.

Google employees are paid a salary for working there, same as any other employees. People working at Google do... everything. The vast majority of employees are Software Engineers, who work on various Google products (Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Android, Wave and, of course, the search engine), as well as their own project (Google gives everyone one day in five to work on their own projects. Gmail, Wave, Chrome, and various other services saw life as a personal project of a Google employee). The rest of the employees do everything else - finance and accounts, marketing, research, cooking, etc.

To work at Google you have to be enormously intelligent. I'd love to work there one day, but I'm not sure I'd fit the grade, sadly. Regardless of the position you're applying for, you'll be asked some very strange questions which give the interviewers an idea of how you think. For example (and I'll make a new thread with some of them):

* How many golf balls can you fit on a school bus?
* How much would you charge to wash all the windows in Seattle?
* If you were shrunk down to the size of a nickel and thrown into an empty glass blender sixty seconds before the blades started spinning, what would you do?

The answers are: ~600,000, say about $10 a window, and whatever you want (the third question is there to see how your mind works).

... I'm liking this idea so far. I would very much enjoy an interview like that...

Is that all the questions, or do they ask a long series?

If everyone was asked those three questions then it wouldn't be a very good way of whittling down the candidates...

They ask three or four of those along with some proper questions.