Googlemania!

I just learned so many new things about Google and search engines this week! I've been a fan of google for a couple of years now, since I've been introduced to Gmail and the many other programs that followed it. I fell in love with Google spreadsheets and Google docs and then Picasa and all of the follwing applications. I guess I just liked that it was all there all convienient and free. I'm an ex-AOL user and so FREE was the part that drew me in. Now that I've read all of the readings about how Google could potentially own my life as well as all the social implications that come along with the search engine, I'm not so sure that I want to continue to give my information so freely to this future media conglomerant. I was unaware and naive of the power that the search engine has by holding so much of the world's information. I love the free webspace though. I love that I can upload so many pictures for free and store it in one of Google's clouds. And if my privacy is the price I have to pay for the convienience and the free space, then right now, Google doesn't seem so bad. I just have to put alot of trust into this company. I have to trust that the company will not exploit the information that I give them and sell it or give it to the government. These are the social implications of such a powerful search engine. Anyone can be googled. How much more information is going to come up when someone types in "Cherie Angelica Rivero." (Google is especially scary for people with unique names!) The information that someone can Google is amazing, but it is also scary to give so much power to one company. The article that said that Microsoft is the future of Google gave me chills because I can see Google as a big scary Googlezon monopoly in the future, just as Microsoft is today. I just hope that the people at Google will be ethical with my private information as they gain so much power.