Did Anyone Notice the Pirate?

I know this is an odd title but there is a man partially dressed up as a pirate in the Google documentary. Look behind the overexcited man with the glasses who loves talking about his problem with Google(Brewster Kahle of the Internet Archive) and you will see a pirate typing away on his computer.

Moving on, I am pro-Google.
Believe it or not I rarely use Google but I am for the idea of one company surviving in this epic battle for the main internet search engine. I am a big fan of the way the boss of European affairs explained the idea of Google in the documentary. He stated how civilizations have always attempted to gather mass collections of information to better themselves and in turn, it led to their advancement in multiple areas (summary of his statement of course). If our civilization can progress faster because of a search engine then right on. Large research tasks can be done quicker and knowledge is more easily accessible, it is a win/win if you look past the whole privacy thing. Google is taking on the ridiculous task of compiling information from all over the globe so it can be accessed when I need to know how many hot dogs the competitive eater from Japan can eat in one sitting. Random trivia to some, priceless knowledge to me.

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the articles and the documentary more than I thought I would. The idea of a fresh, young company taking over the world allows me to sleep at night opposed to an organization like Cobra or Microsoft (same thing?). The one thing that gets me though is Google Earth. I use it and love it and well, hey, I have been known to spend hours on it looking at random islands in the Pacific. I am afraid though of the idea of having a live image at some point that is accessible to the average user (I understand the "live" feed may be a few hours old but still, weird).

There are always going to be privacy concerns when talking about search engines but I have faith (at least for a little while) that I will not be denied a job in a couple years because I looked up how to make napalm for a science project in eighth grade. It can be creepy when doing something on a search engine and suggestions and related ads pop up, but it is something we will all get used to and not even notice in a few years.

I believe that Google is going in the right direction with their developing technologies where they will be, and remain, the search engine of the future. I am partially put at ease with Google's motto of not doing evil, but maybe I am just more trusting than I should be. As for the attempted acquisition of Yahoo, I thought it was ridiculous from the start. Microsoft obviously feels threatened by Google and wanted to acquire a "competitor" to show they could dominate another market. Google will not be dominated though and I think deep down they felt any run was fruitless. It is possible that I am putting too much faith into Google but I think with their endless creativity and popularity, they are bound for world domination.

If their domination leads to Big Brother and no privacy, then it might as well be packaged with black rim glasses and a Weezer t-shirt; at least they look cool doing it.