When it comes to the Internet , it just does n’t get much bigger than Google . In the United States , Google systematically gobbles up 70 to 75 pct of the search railway locomotive market [ reference : Garner ] . In places like the United Kingdom , Switzerland and South America , that phone number soar to more than 90 pct of the grocery store plowshare [ source : Google Operating System ] .
Google has conquered the hunt engine world so entirely that its very name is synonymous with Internet search . How many companies ( besides Xerox , of course ) are recognized by Merriam - Webster ’s dictionary as a verb ?
succeeder on this musical scale is bound to attract some aid , and Google ’s winner has garnered a band of it . In fact , an enthusiastic press corps and caffeine - fueled blogosphere scrutinize Google ’s every move . Is Google corrupt Twitter ? Is it give out to launch its own cell phone web ? Is it thinking about removing blueberries from the Google cafeteria ’s fruit salad ?
The following is a list of the top 5 myth about Google , Inc. , in no particular order . If any of these rumor sound too eldritch to believe , do n’t take our Logos for it . Google it .
5: Google Doesn’t Make Any Money
Google offers a nonsensical numeral of online services . There ’s the flagship Google search engine , Gmail , Google Maps , Google Earth , Google News , Google Talk , Google Docs and Google Calendar , just to scratch the surface . Then there are pop Google - owned Web land site like YouTube , Picasa and Blogger . All of these service are utterly costless .
So , how does Google make money ? Does it make money at all ? Since Google ’s debut , a persistent hearsay asserts that the companionship has no business simulation and therefore take a crap no profit . That ’s one seriously misguided myth .
In 2008 , Google made well-nigh $ 22 billion [ source : Google ] . Ninety - seven percent of the company ’s tax income came from advertising . How did they pull this off ? Google has developed two extremely profitable advertizement models : Google AdWords and Google AdSense .
The advertiser does n’t pay Google each time his or her ad is evidence . He or she only pay when someone penetrate on his or her advertising . Click - through cost can be as down as 10 cent , so it ’s not a steep investment for advertisers . But for Google , all of those dime bag bring up quickly .
AdSense works in a similar way , but the schoolbook ads come on on non - Google Web sites . If you run a World Wide Web site and require to take in a little advertising revenue , you’re able to contract up with AdSense . Google use its algorithms to show pertinent ads to site visitant . Every clip a visitor clicks on an ad , the advertiser pays Google 10 centime or $ 20 , depend on the popularity of a particular keyword . Google then give you , the Web situation possessor , a minor slice of that fee .
Keep in mind that all of that revenue is n’t pure profit : After a class of investiture personnel casualty and ecumenical economic havoc , Google turned a net profit of $ 4 billion in 2008 . In the terminal quarter of 2008 , however , it experienced its first - ever dip in quarterly profits [ beginning : Liedtke ] .
4: Google Is Making You Dumber
What ’s the cap of Uruguay ? Who was the first female NASA spaceman ? What exactly is Newton ’s Second Law of Motion ? Oh , that ’s well-situated ! Google . Google . Google .
Believe it or not , there was a time when the worldly concern expected you to actually remember and analyze those dates , facts and other bits of highly forgettable information you were instruct in high schooling . Now , rather of long - terminus memory and intelligence , we have a search boxful .
This estimation raises a provocative question : Does Google really make us dumber or have we as a worldwide society simply change the definition of " smart ? "
A recent clause in The Atlantic Monthly designate out that people have been blaming technology for our downwardly spiral intelligence since twenty-four hour period one . Socrates bemoaned the excogitation of the write word , say it would cause human beings to become forgetful [ reference : Carr ] . The impress wardrobe sparked call over the democratisation of knowledge and its corrupting effect on religious belief .
The Internet also has its critic . Studies show that the Internet has caused some clear shifts in the way we march information [ source : Rich ] . In the on-line realm , skimming , link - jumping and other nonlinear reading is more common than digesting farsighted sections of schoolbook , as we would in a account book or cartridge . Critics argue that our grow disinterest in read longer passing of text means we ca n’t think critically about a case [ source : Carr ] .
guardian of the Internet make the opposite controversy : Google has made us infinitely more intelligent by giving us instant memory access to all the world ’s collective knowledge [ reservoir : Grier ] . They argue that Google is the smart answer to a technologically " dumb " and out-of-date library system [ source : Polaine ] . With Google , we can gather up - to - the - moment information from numberless reference with blazing speed .
In other words : Yes , we skim , but that is n’t necessarily a spoilt thing .
3: Google Knows Everything About You
late in the bowels of a clime - control , neon - lit server farm inside a nondescript Google data center in a nameless Arkansas industrial park Trygve Halvden Lie gigabyte of entropy . This information paint a shockingly exact picture of who you are , where you live and what you like to watch on YouTube . Sounds ominous , does n’t it ?
It ’s all dead on target : Google save search queries associated with your Internet Protocol ( IP ) address for nine months [ source : Privacy Rights Clearinghouse ] . It uses software package to rake entanglement Es - post for keywords . With a fresh cellular phone phone Robert William Service called Latitude , your friends ( and Google ) always know where you are . Even YouTube always seems to advise videos that you actually need to watch . Creepy , huh ?
Obviously , if Google has admittance to all of this information , it ’s using it in ominous ways . Not so fast : According to Google representative , there ’s nothing personally identifiable about any of the information that Google saves and analyzes . Your search queries , for example , are n’t your actual search queries , but searches done from your computer ’s IP address . An IP address only gives Google a vague geographical location , not a name .
No Google employee is allowed to make connections between IP addresses and individuals . In fact , Google has a story of denying requests from the U.S. government to hand over search histories for investigations [ reference : Boggan ] .
The answer , harmonize to Google , is corporate school of thought number six : " you may make money without doing immorality " [ source : Google ] .
2: Google Earth Is Spying On You
There is something undeniably Orwellian about Google Earth . Type in your rest home address and the camera swoops down from the stratosphere to display a clear aeriform shot of your firm . Zoom in nearer and you’re able to make out the pink rhododendron on your front lawn and your automobile in the driveway .
You half have a bun in the oven to surge into the aliveness way windowpane and see yourself sit at your computing equipment . flourish to the camera !
The myth about Google Earth is that it ’s the world ’s most powerful real - meter undercover agent photographic camera . The truth is that every figure of speech you see on Google Earth is an norm of one to three class old [ source : Google Earth ] . Google collects and composites images from satellite and aerial imaging companies like DigitalGlobe and Tele Atlas , as well as from government way and the armed forces .
So yes , it ’s potential to get see on photographic camera by Google Earth , but that would take an unbelievable amount of hazard .
The " Street View " option on Google Maps has also issue forth under fire from seclusion advocates who consider it also functions as a spy camera . But once again , the figure are only updated once every few year . Plus , Google has devised a face - blurring algorithm to protect the anonymity of folks unexpectedly enchant on camera [ source : Rosenblatt ] .
1: Google Wants to Own the Internet
When Google buy something – like YouTube – it usually makes front - page news show . That ’s why some Google watchers are intrigue by the company ’s extremely quiet purchase of mile and mile ofdark fibre .
Dark fiber is high - speed fiber - optic networking cable system that has n’t been switched on yet . insider say Google owns more dark fiber than any other organization in the world [ source : Cringely ] .
What could a company like Google do with all of that surplus conducting wire ? The short answer : It could really pirate the net .
This is the end of the world scenario purpose by technology writer and editorialist Robert X. Cringely . As more and more masses use the Internet to download moving picture , boob tube show , music and other medium , net divine service providers ( ISPs ) will struggle to touch the increased bandwidth demands . Google , meanwhile , will use all of that moody fiber to build its own faster , more efficient adaptation of the Internet . When ISPs reach their capability , they will have no option but to route all of their dealings through Google .
" We wo n’t know if we ’re reach the cyberspace or Google and for all pragmatic purposes it wo n’t matter , " Cringely spell in 2007 . " Google will become our telephone troupe , our cable’s length company , our stereo system of rules and our digital video recorder " [ source : Cringely ] .
Google representatives have a slightly less dramatic explanation for the black fiber purchases . They just want to use it to interconnect data centers located around the world .
Google also partners with telecommunication companies like AT&T to take over bandwidth on their nationwide web . To make these arrangements work , Google has to route a mountain of its dealings to specific distant " peering " locations [ source : Sullivan ] . That require a lot of spare networking fiber as well .
" You see an clause in the New York Times about how AT&T has bought more fiber , and their stock goes up , " Google ’s Chris Sacca said in 2006 . " Then there is the same article over here about how Google buy some fiber , and it ’s like ' Google is seek to take over the earth . ' " That does n’t seem to be the sheath – at nowadays .
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