Google is Just Different

Dear Mr. Gleick, I’ve always had an admiration for what Google has been able to accomplish in its very brief existence. They have been able to become the most recognizable brand throughout the world yet also the most useful and arguable impactful on our lives. Your article “How Google Dominates Us” explains very clearly what exactly makes Google so special and how they have revolutionized online advertising. It’s also impressive have Google has marketed their image to make their name a verb causing people to think that Google is the place where all the answers are stored and when you search you are just accessing their library. As you have said, Google used mathematics to transform everything online especially advertising and predictive searching. Google realized that they could be different by using numbers to figure out the habits of people, including number of clicks, instead of just relying on their ability to provide information to its users. These points compliment what Christine Harold discusses in her article Ourspace. She talks about how Myspace was able to keep its cool image even when they were bought by the media empire News Corp. Google, while a titan in business and all things media, has also been able to remain cool and attractive to key demographics. Myspace was able to brand themselves as an oasis for brands and Google has been able to brand themselves as an advertising giant across the entire web. While Google is much more powerful than Myspace the two have been able to create a need amongst their users through marketing their unique uses. Sincerely, Andrew Kerth