Are we scared of the Great Google Kingdom ?

Imagine the magnitude of the tasks Google undertakes -

• Add servers to store 1 trillion web pages

• Build world’s largest photo album

• Scan every book in print

• Be the world’s No. 1 destination for online video

• Develop its in-house web browser and leave the tech world guessing

• Release its own operating system for mobile phones that promises astonishing capabilities

The outstanding question here is, what is Google seriously up to?

We’re not talking of a “phenomenon” or a “market space”, we’re witnessing concentration of information on a more than mammoth scale and we don’t even know whether we want to restrict it or not?
It’s a Googlesphere – One super super computer functioning on world’s most powerful network of computers, brought forth by one organization and the world heeds it. In it’s first 10 years, Google undauntedly undertook some of the largest scale tech challenges. What Google was indulging into wasn’t hidden at any point in time. That it assiduously started harnessing, processing and commercializing “all” the world’s information since its inception, was known. What makes Google’s supercomputer more herculean is that the more information it keeps collecting, the smarter its algorithm becomes.
Is the scale at which Google functions as a storehouse of personal information demands a public oversight?

The Google empire is ever expanding. Recently it announced the release of its T-Mobile’s G1 phone, first phone ever to be using Google’s OS for mobile phones, Android. Developers claim that Android phone has the potential of beating the iPhone in features and capabilities. It intends to take the future of the smart-phones to the next level, bringing the Google supercomputer to the palm.

The most consequential era started when there was an ideology clash between Google’s new kingdom and the reigning Microsoft Empire. Microsoft’s founding mission to put “a computer on every desk and in every home” was challenged head-on by Google which aimed at re-centralizing computing, shifting it from our desktops and laptops to “the cloud” (remote servers having no exact location yet accessible wherever there is an Internet connection).

The shift of power was natural. During Microsoft’s reign, it did not have the access as to what its customers were doing. The information (on Word and Excel) was restricted to our PCs. This was not to be continued in Google’s territory where information (on Spreadsheets and Google Docs) can be tracked.

The era has marked a noted shift in dominance where Microsoft is compelled to tread a path opposite to its own creed. This when Microsoft was quietly witnessing the global shift against itself but was sluggish to adapt.

Google’s immense might surely scares but isn’t it justified? Imagine how disturbing it would be if our government was to embark on a collection of information on the scale of Google without having any accountability and transparency that we demand of it.