TheQueen
02-11-2010, 11:16 AM
It's Google's world, we just live in it
It's fun to trash the search-monster's Buzz, but there's a method to its social networking smart-phone madness
By Andrew Leonard
Is this what world domination looks like? On Wednesday, Google announced it was building an ultrafast, one-gigabit-per-second broadband network designed to showcase "innovative" Internet applications. On Tuesday, Google launched Google Buzz, integrating social networking functions into Gmail. Last month, Google debuted its Nexus One smart phone.
So in little more than a month, Google has invaded the turf of the biggest telecommunication companies (Verizon, AT&T, etc.), directly challenged the reigning social networking giant (Facebook), and taken aim at the most fetishized gadget of the 21st century -- the iPhone (Apple).
Even Microsoft, in its heyday, was never quite that ambitious. The multiple fronts on which Google is battling -- and the huge prizes at stake -- make the old Microsoft-Netscape browser wars look like a water fight waged with busted pistols. The scale at which Google hubris is operating is absurd: We will index all the world's information, upload all the books, deploy the fastest network and design the coolest phone, while simultaneously managing your e-mail, pictures, blogs and anything else you'd care to upload to our online repositories.
There's a natural urge to react negatively to so much expansionism, and it's painfully visible if you dip into the Twitter-storm currently boiling over on the topic of "Google Buzz." People who seem to have spent no more than 10 minutes exploring the service are wondering what's the point, labeling it an "epic fail," and, most popular, questioning why the world needs yet another social networking service.
CONTINUE READING: http://salon.com/technology/google/index.html?story=/tech/how_the_world_works/2010/02/10/google
It's fun to trash the search-monster's Buzz, but there's a method to its social networking smart-phone madness
By Andrew Leonard
Is this what world domination looks like? On Wednesday, Google announced it was building an ultrafast, one-gigabit-per-second broadband network designed to showcase "innovative" Internet applications. On Tuesday, Google launched Google Buzz, integrating social networking functions into Gmail. Last month, Google debuted its Nexus One smart phone.
So in little more than a month, Google has invaded the turf of the biggest telecommunication companies (Verizon, AT&T, etc.), directly challenged the reigning social networking giant (Facebook), and taken aim at the most fetishized gadget of the 21st century -- the iPhone (Apple).
Even Microsoft, in its heyday, was never quite that ambitious. The multiple fronts on which Google is battling -- and the huge prizes at stake -- make the old Microsoft-Netscape browser wars look like a water fight waged with busted pistols. The scale at which Google hubris is operating is absurd: We will index all the world's information, upload all the books, deploy the fastest network and design the coolest phone, while simultaneously managing your e-mail, pictures, blogs and anything else you'd care to upload to our online repositories.
There's a natural urge to react negatively to so much expansionism, and it's painfully visible if you dip into the Twitter-storm currently boiling over on the topic of "Google Buzz." People who seem to have spent no more than 10 minutes exploring the service are wondering what's the point, labeling it an "epic fail," and, most popular, questioning why the world needs yet another social networking service.
CONTINUE READING: http://salon.com/technology/google/index.html?story=/tech/how_the_world_works/2010/02/10/google