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View Full Version : Google's Plan To Take Over The World



ELVIS
05-19-2013, 12:00 PM
Business Insider (http://www.businessinsider.com/googles-plan-to-take-over-the-world-2013-5)

Google‘s big keynote at its I/O developers conference this week wore me out.

Not because it lasted a grueling three hours and fifty minutes, but because of what was announced. With every new product update, every new feature, every new virtual service, it became more and more clear that Google isn’t just a search company that makes loads of cash by showing you ads. It’s creeping into every aspect of our digital, physical, and private lives at an exponential rate.

I’m still trying to wrap my mind around it.

Google isn’t just the backbone of the Internet anymore. It’s rapidly becoming the backbone of your entire life, all thanks to data you’re voluntarily giving up to a private company based on your Web searches, photos, Gmail messages, and more.

After spending three days at I/O this week, it became more apparent than ever that unless millions (billions?) of people suddenly change their mind and start using alternative tech tools, or unless the government steps in waving the anti-trust banner, our lives, our history, and our personal wealth could be managed by one company –– Google.

It’s the most apparent in Google Now, a voice-powered personal assistant that launched on Android phones last year. At I/O, it became even more clear that Google no longer sees search as returning a list of 10 or 20 relevant links when you type in a query. Google Now is much more than that. It’s the embodiment of that geeky dream of a “Star Trek Computer,” an intelligent machine that understands natural language and real-world context to assist you before you even know you need assistance.

Google Now scans your email and knows when your Amazon package is arriving. It knows what sports scores to show you based on the teams you’ve searched for. It knows what stock prices to show you based on the companies you search for. It scans your calendar and reminds you when to leave to make your appointment on time. And all that data is delivered to you without you having to ask.

Following I/O, Google Now is more prevalent than before. Google recently launched the app on iPhones and iPads, and it’s coming to the desktop soon if you use the Chrome Web browser. Next year, you’ll be wearing Google Now on your face if you buy Google Glass.

Then there are photos, arguably the most personal things you share online. Now, Google scans every single one you upload to Google+. It can learn what your family members look like and group photos of them into albums automatically. It can tell if your subjects are smiling. If they’re not smiling, it can stitch their faces in from other images where they are and create the perfect photo for you. It knows if you’re taking pictures of mountains or puppies or buildings or famous landmarks and group your photo albums together accordingly.

It’s creepy and magical at the same time.

Google Glass didn’t get any stage time during the I/O keynote, but it was still a significant part of the event. You couldn’t go anywhere –– the press room, the cafeteria, the restroom –– without someone’s computerized headgear staring back at you. It was oddly discomforting knowing that thousands of people had the ability to take a photo or video of you just by winking at their Glass.

It’s far too early to tell if Glass will take off when it’s ready for the general public, but if it does, then it’ll be just another example of how Google has reached into the physical space to take over everything we see and do.

I could go on and on, but this week I learned that Google has its hand in almost every aspect day-to-day life and its penetration is only accelerating.

Android is growing like crazy with 900 million activations to date, and it has the potential to connect billions of people to the Internet for the first time in the next few years. Google Maps has a new look, and it’s turned into a snappy way to find places to visit and get recommendations. Gmail is turning into a money transfer service. I can only imagine what Google co-founder Sergey Brin is working on at Google X, the company’s lab for futuristic products.

The question to ask now is, are we OK with this? Does the benefit of faster search, better transportation, and automated news updates outweigh giving up so much of our lives to a computer run by a private company that mines our data?

They’re issues we’d have to tackle gradually, but hopefully not before Google advances faster than we can adapt.


:elvis:

ELVIS
05-19-2013, 12:04 PM
Why can't I add a fucking image to my story ??

Nickdfresh
05-19-2013, 12:26 PM
Google is becoming the Standard Oil of the 21st century...

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Dv5UQ1EJoDw/UJ_D6Ql107I/AAAAAAAAKvU/K0Fa8LJHk3k/s1600/Standard+Oil+Co.,+Octopus.jpg

clarathecarrot
05-19-2013, 12:38 PM
Why can't I add a fucking image to my story ??

Because it's Fucking LOUGLE

NOW

9926

clarathecarrot
05-19-2013, 12:44 PM
What alot of people don't realize is if you Google something the first things listed 8-22 items are not your query, they are sponsored links owned by or profited from Google.

So, you really aren't serching for your question you are getting Googles suggested links that make them money...

But hey who cares who get's me my fatass pron..?

FORD
05-19-2013, 02:25 PM
The best way to use Google's tools is to use de-Googled versions of them. Because it's not that their software is bad, it's just the spyware & data-mining bullshit they mix in with it.

The Chrome browser, for example is damn good. Or at least the Chromium engine is. Not so much all the crap they weigh it down with. Straight non-Googlefied Chromium is a better alternative, if you're running Linux. Windows users might want to look into Comodo Dragon or SRWare Iron as alternatives. The latter is also available for Mac. And these do run all the standard Chrome plugins, so of course you can block ads, scripts, and add on whatever bells and whistles you want.

As for the Google search engine, haven't found anything yet that works as well, functionally speaking. Not Yahoo, not Bing, and not fucking Duck Duck Go (no matter how much Thom Hartmann swears by it).

But just as with the Chromium based browsers, there's a de-Googlefied version that does the same thing, only better.

http://startpage.com/eng/privacy-policy.html

Been using that as my main search page for a couple years now. Give it a shot.....

ELVIS
05-19-2013, 04:21 PM
I use Firefox and lxquick on a mac...

Fuck google and PCs...

FORD
05-19-2013, 08:06 PM
One might still be able to make a case that the MacOS, being based on Darwin BSD unix, is more secure than Windows, but as far as the hardware goes, it's pretty much the same made in China crap, and you paid a lot more for it. If I was going to run OSx, I'd probably Hackintosh it, and save money on the hardware.

Apple seems to have lost a lot of their purpose without Steve Jobs anyway. Not to mention they seemed to be focused more on their mobile devices, and now breaking into the video streaming gadget market (with Apple TV) to be as serious about the Macs as they once were.

As for Ixquick, it's essentially the same thing as Startpage. Not sure why they keep it running under two different names.

ELVIS
05-19-2013, 08:22 PM
lxquick gives results from a host of search engines and zero google results...

Startpage gives google results without the spying...