If Google disappeared tomorrow
I’ve just been reading David Petherick‘s post “Imagine there’s no Google” and it’s scared me a little. When the Internet was new we didn’t really think about the fact that all of our information was dotted around lots of different places, we remembered all of our different logins and passwords because we had to. We searched using Yahoo!, but it was a search so we didn’t need to keep it and our web portals (like My Yahoo or MSN) were fine for keeping our links and our personal emails.
But our web use has changed, most of us access the Internet and many have at least one web connected device in our house. It’s not just the geeks anymore, the growth of social media such as Facebook and Twitter has helped this, along with the way that email has been embraced by so many people. Of course the problems with Royal Mail have helped email’s cause, get your message directly to someone quickly, efficiently and know whether or not it has arrived within seconds? Of course!
I have been one of those people who has embraced the growth of the Internet and I love the connectivity it gives me. With my Laptop in the Lounge, my desktop in the bedroom, and of course the games console that’s attached to the TV I can access the web from anywhere in my home. Add to that my G1 and I’ve got the world’s knowledge in my hand all the time. And what do I use to keep on top of it? Google of course!
You see, the thing for me is that Google know exactly what it is that I need, and they tie it all together in one easy to use package. I’m currently typing this on Google’s Chrome browser, it’s clean, fast and simple – just what I’ve come to expect from Google products. At the same time I have my Google sidebar running (it’s part of theGoogle Desktop programme) which can check my GMail, Google Calendar, Google Reader and link me to my Google Docs. When I load up Chrome I get to see my iGoogle page with all the widgets that I find useful.
And this is before we’ve got into Picasa, Orkut, Blogger, Maps, Earth and Adsense. Yes, I am fully aware that Google are using me to improve their product, and I know that their product isn’t a search engine or any of the other delivery systems that they use. Their product is advertisement space.
They use my clicks and my history to target ads to me, when I recently sent an email to my partner about a B&B when we go to visit my cousin in Lancashire there beside my email was targeted ads for Hotels in Preston. If I hadn’t already done the search then I would have just been able to click on that link.
People think this is creepy, they think that there is someone at Google watching everything that they do online. That’s just not possible, you’d need one person to watch everyone who was online to be able to do that, and even Google can’t afford that many staff! And if someone at Google was able to separate my sad and boring life from the rest of the vast data stream that’s flowing through their servers every second of every day then they’re welcome to it, there’s nothing exciting there at all, I promise!
I know that Google’s products aren’t always the best option on the market (they are, after all, provided free) but they have one huge thing going for them, they integrate well with each other and I know what I’m getting, something clean, fast and simple. Designed to make my online life easy.
Since when did Twitter become Facebook?
It took me a while, but in January this year I found twitter. And it was a breath of fresh air after Facebook. It was clean, simple and devoted solely to communicating with people. No more would I be asked to join someone’s PirateNinjaMafia War or go hunting for Easter Eggs/Christmas decorations/Flowering plants. Neither would I be asked to pop something in a colleague’s secret lady garden or enter a friends special spyring – before the US busts it 
(OK, I made those last two up just for double entendre’s sake – but you’ve all seen Facebook, you know what it’s like!)
But something has started on twitter. Sure, I’ve been playing the hashtag games. They’re fun, social and anyone can join in, but there’s a new game, Spymaster, that needs you to sign up before joining in, and it seems from the tweets that a lot of my friends have joined in.
Don’t get me wrong – I really want my friends to enjoy their time on whatever social network they choose. My only issue is with the fact that these games impose themselves on my tweetstream, just as the others did on my Facebook posts. Does this mean that we’ll all soon be taking quizzes and tweeting the results? Oh no, I forgot, we have the daily Twittascope instead!
Who knows, maybe Google Wave is my answer – but I’m going to have to wait a while for that. I only hope they actually make an Android app for it rather than waiting for someone to cobble something together like the gDocs app. Yes it works, but it’s Fugly and just not what you want to see on behalf of Google.
I may be disillusioned at the moment but I’m going to watch this trend for twitter games carefully. I won’t make a decision just yet though.
#FixReplies
So, this morning – like the rest of the twitterverse – I logged on and saw the announcement that there had been a “Small Settings Update” and that this affected @replies.
There seemed to be a bit of confusion as to HOW this affected us all, although we knew it would. It didn’t take long though for the hashtag to arrive, and it was #FixReplies. This was different to any of the myriad ‘bring back the old Facebook‘ petitions, unlike Facebook, twitter changed a fundamental part of the social networking side. It would be like taking away the “People you may know” feature from Facebook.
Eventually, twitter realised that there was a problem and thanked the community for the feedback, and it seemed that the only thing that was getting through as being worrying was that people use the unshared @reply to find other new tweeps to follow. Of course that was a concern, but I had a thought…
One of the big conversations about twitter around the net at the moment is whether it will replace Google. To do this twitter HAS to allow information to flow freely around the twitterverse, and this new “feature” doesn’t allow it.
As an example, I follow @BullyingUK, an excellent support resource (and yes that was a shameless plug!). Now imagine @BullyingVictim sends a message to @BullyingUK asking for a telephone number he could call for help.
Using the old system, @BullyingUK could hit the reply button and say “@BullyingVictim Call your local helpline on 12345678.” And anyone following @BullyingUK could see it. Under the new system you would need to follow both @BullyingUK and @BullyingVictim to get the update.
Now imagine you’re a worried, shy person who needs that number but daren’t ask and you don’t know @BullyingVictim. You won’t see either tweet. The new system doesn’t work.
As I was heading home from work earlier however I saw a link to a final post from @Biz that said it wasn’t a new feature, but something that the system couldn’t do any more. But it’s a key part of what makes twitter work, and the team need to remember this.
They’ve said the way around it is to type your @reply instead of using the reply button. Isn’t that great – especially after reports that show 60% of twitter users don’t get it and quit within a month – twitter decides to make the site even less user friendly!
Google Street View – My Take
This Independent on Sunday article talks about (read: scaremongers) the ‘privacy concerns’ around Google Street View. It seems from the comments on the page that I’m not the only person who’s confused with this.
Firstly I really don’t understand the privacy issues involved that people keep talking about. Google simply drove around a number of public streets around the UK and took a load of still shots. This was about six months ago. Anyone could do it. But because it’s Google everyone jumps on the “evil huge corporations are taking over the world” bandwagon.
I’m a Google fan. The products they produce are useful, fun, easy to use and help to make my online life easier. I can access my Google Mail account and Google Calendar from my T-Mobile G1 and my iGoogle page keeps all of my fun and useful apps in one place. If I want to have a look for something entertaining to watch I can visit YouTube and then go to my Blogger account to discuss it in detail. Of course if I’m really desperate I suppose I can also use it to search, but that’s only at a push! ;-P In short they deliver everything I ask of them. They have a clearPrivacy Policy and have never (to my knowledge) broken this with me.
Compare this with the UK Government who have decided, against my wishes, to introduce an identity card that contains around 50 pieces of data about me. I wasn’t asked to agree to this. I wasn’t given the option of using a different organisation for my identity needs. I (like every other person who lives in the UK) have been told that this will happen. The card will contain my fingerprints and iris details (you know – the things I can’t change) and will be looked after by the same government that keeps people’s benefit details safe as well as laptops containing personal details. Yes, that’s just one laptop, but it seems that the plural is correct
I don’t mean this to be a soapbox, but I really think that, if people are going to cry out against privacy issues, they should cry out against actual infringements before they scream and shout and stamp their feet about a company taking some photos.
And yes, my house is on street viewer, my car’s parked outside my house and do you know what? I don’t care!
