Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Google and Life Online

Dear Gleick and Boyd,

I thought the article "How Google Dominates Us" was very interesting and true in a lot of ways.  Google has become one of the worlds most powerful companies in a very short period of time because they are amazing at what they do.  When someone needs an answer, there's no discussion of what needs to happen in order to find the answer.  In our world today where everything is electronic, even my friends without smartphones can use the wifi in my house in order to search the internet.  Whenever I need an answer for something I simply Google it.  The company has become so large and important in people's daily lives that their term is used as a verb all the time.  I really agreed with the point you made about no one giving recognition to the actual pages and websites they get their information from.  People obviously know Google isn't some magic genie with all of the answers in the world, however it acts as one.  It is by far the most popular search engine along with offering numerous other options so it's no wonder why people always choose to use it.  Although Google's "mind reader" can sometimes be slightly creepy, I really think its a great addition to their search engine.  It understands what the most searched topics are so why not help you get there more efficiently?  By having options pop up after only a few words typed in, people can simply hit the enter button without finishing their sentence.  In an instantaneous world, Google reacts for us.  





Boyd,

Your article was interesting as well, especially the part about people's identities online.  You discussed how on social media sites people often reference to each other as their handles or blogger names.  I find this to be very true.  On a few of these sites I tend to use the same user name as my others so that my following and ideas are recognized as one.  Also by using the same instagram name as my Twitter, my followers can search and find me very easily because they know my online identity.

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