Google is taking over the world

I think Web searching has tons of social implications.  While it definitely makes life easier to find information, sites like Google that track searches (and track information on e-mails) concern me a bit.  Even writing this in Blogger makes me a little nervous that my search results will be altered or give me wrong information for even questioning the titan.  In the name of tracking these things to make my life easier or help me get the best deal, Google has me feeling instead like I am being watched or followed.  In the documentary, the interviewer even asked the vice president how Google really isn't "big brother;" she paused, and gave a naive and unconvicted answer of, "I guess I just don't see it that way."  It kinda makes me want to delete my gmail.

I guess my above worries can be mitigated in some way when I hear Google's corporate phrase "don't be evil," or they say something like, "Some search engines out there, today, sort of mix in paid results with regular results, and they don't label them. So the user doesn't know that that would not have appeared had they not paid for it.  I think that's wrong"  (Inside the Wide World of Google).  I'm not sure how much of their efforts to be "nice" come from their moral compass or from a new business strategy.  Either way, I think Google is unconventional in their efforts to become an end-all for internet uses, incorporating special "google tricks," social networking tools, e-mail, and even calculator.  It's really catering to any and all needs, even needs people never knew they had - like finding a Wal-Mart item by typing the UPC in the search prompt.  So unnecessary...

That said, however, I really think search engines in general are such effective tools, which most of the reading supported.  As women are catching up to men in their frequency of internet use, it is (and will be in the future) interesting to see their uses and gratifications.  According to the PEW article, women are more likely to use e-mail to write to friends and family while men are more apt to communicate with organizations.  This is interesting as OpenSocial, which is focused both on moving current relationships online and business professionals, starts to grow.  According to Anil Dash of Six Apart, "The market has already decided that there's going to be a long tail of social networks, and that people are going to belong to more than one."  Why haven't other social networks thought of this?  Obviously, the Long Tail is a trademark of the Internet; why wouldn't it be popular on a social network?  Niche groups all conformed into one large network of friends will, again, be the end-all for online communities.

From my last checking of the news, Yahoo still hasn't settled with Microsoft's offer...they're apparently holding out for more money.  Maybe they'll decide that even $50 a share wouldn't be worth selling, but I guess everyone has a price.