Tuesday 17 August 2010

Google … Going, Going, Gone?

In a cruel twist of irony, it seems the Speed of Retrieval that Google brought (this search took 0.00246 seconds) and the Abundance of Information (showing 20 of 546,567,234 results) may be leading to the actual demise of Google.

The saying “God & Google Know”, may soon be a thing of the past, if Google is not able to master the new wave of networks that are taking hold of the Internet

The Net is evolving from a complex repository of information stored on a huge network of computers (for which Google was the All Knowing All Seeing God) to a network of immensely greater complexity of this repository of information being layered by a multitude of facets, feelings, opinions and connections.

Google is now grappling with an internet where the black & white of facts and information are being blurred into an infinite number of grays - of multi-layered  opinions, feelings & emotions - continuously changing both with context & in time.

There is a new paradigm appearing, where… the basic premises of privacy and individuality are being questioned and HOTLY debated… The Net User is splitting into groups…. The Exhibitionists, The Individualists and the TOTALLY CONFUSED.

While most of us would fall into the last category all of us a slowly beginning to file into one of the first two categories, which of these two will be in majority will define the stability of the flux that the Internet is currently witnessing.

Simply put –

Is The Default Question

> Make this Public?
or
> Keep this Private?

Is Cloud Computing

> a personal & private experience to keep personal records, gain factual information & personal entertainment?
or
> a medium of growing communities, strengthening connections, public displays of affection & other emotions /talents/skills and OPINIONS?

Currently the trend appears to be that most of us stand firmly in the TOTALLY CONFUSED CATEGORY… making Issues of what is Public & Private, Neutrality & Privacy, Free Speech seem FANTASTICALLY complex
the Default setting of Make this public (Yes/No) is now in contention..

Which set will be The New Age user gravitate towards… their own personal privacy or a more comprehensive and holistic view of the “Internet of Things”

An Individualist Perspective

Dear friends,

The Internet has made amazing things possible, like freeing the Jena 6 and electing President Obama. None of it could have happened without an "open" Internet: one where Internet service providers are not allowed to interfere with what is seen and by whom.

Now, Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon -- the most powerful broadband providers -- are trying to fundamentally change the way the Internet works. They're seeking to make even bigger profits by acting as gatekeepers over what we see and do online. If they succeed, the Internet would be more like radio and television: a few major corporations would control which voices are heard most easily, and it would be much harder for grassroots groups, individuals, and small businesses to compete with large corporations and well-funded special interests.

The FCC wants to do the right thing and keep the Internet open, but the big providers have been attacking their efforts, with help from Black leaders who have financial ties to the industry. And a recent court ruling just made the FCC's job even tougher.[1] If the FCC is to preserve an open Internet, they will have to boldly assert their authority and press even harder. It's why they need to hear directly from everyday people about the importance of an open Internet, now.

Will you join me in sending a message to the Federal Communications Commission supporting their effort to preserve an open Internet? It takes only a moment:


Thanks.

An Exhibitionist Perspective

Today, the net is turning into Widgets, Feeds, & Real-time Status Updates, netizens have started “expecting” the Net to simply provide them with answers, stories to read, bargains to buy-and where the need to do a search is viewed as a bug … something to be avoided.

At Google, where every problem is waiting to be solved by some form of search query, this is tantamount to blasphemy.

Some Signposts of the New Internet-

§          Distributed co-creation moves into the mainstream
§          Making the network the organization
§          Collaboration at scale
§          The growing ‘Internet of Things’
§          Experimentation and big data
§          Wiring for a sustainable world
§          Imagining anything as a service
§          The age of the multisided business model
§          Innovating from the bottom of the pyramid
§          Producing public good on the grid

Analysts estimate that 91% of Google's revenue still comes from the AdWords and AdSense business model that Google built around Page and Brin's breakthrough PageRank algorithm. Even more telling, an estimated 99% of its profit does too.

But if Google can change its utilitarian ways, the company stands a real chance of tapping into that next growth engine. If it added that social layer to its core search business and to Android, and blew it out on YouTube, giving people a reason to hang out on Google sites for long periods. Advertisers would come flocking. If it can get that right, Google would be unstoppable… Just like it used to be.


God Knows.