this is going to sound like an ad for google...
i'm doing some research at the moment relating to cities, imagination, mapping and technology. of course, google maps features heavily and in the interest of getting a grip on it, i did some scouting around their corporate site. the company milestones are as hilarious as they are astounding (like google maps only went live 3 years ago!) and i stumbled upon some of these cool thangs:
swedish chef as a language, since 2001
google transit
all the april fools jokes, including virgle
and the royal channel!
i know everyone goes on about them being the new death star, but i think this level of humour and computer-science-at-stanford geekery helps to keep them relatively humble. well, it certainly made corporate history research a whole lot more interesting anyway.
10 comments:
This is also gonna sound like Google fanboyism... but I'm happy for Google to be the Death Star. Think about it... their job is to offer a shitload of useful applications to make the web (and out lives easier/better). And so far, they've managed to do it well in a short period of time and still be true to what makes Google, Google.
Someone has to do it. I trust them.
They could be an angel.
They could be satan.
But they haven't decided yet.
The only thing that's scary is that thanks to Google, Blogger, YouTube and Chrome they know your steps. I was born in a country where probably every 5th citizen was working for the state's secret police informally. Everybody found it a scary thought. But the same everybody now offers all informations for free and much easier to Google.
I don't want to judge them or to call them a Death Star. I'm just saying it's a type of informations and power status that you have to be careful with. Incredibly.
age - i'm not a complete fanboy yet - i still have my reservations, but you're right, they could be a whole lot worse and the way they have galvanised is impressive. although, given what seb said, there are other powerful platforms that quickly rose to power which is impressive, but also dangerous.
seb - I agree with you absolutely. However part of the difference is the level of choice/fear that surrounds google vs the stasi (the formation of which i share my birthday with, weirdly enough) - there is a certain aspect that most people (and i underline most) people offer up a large chunk of info to the web/google/online media, knowing that it's trackable and they choose to manage based on that. for the most part, a lot of that tracking is also available to us as participants (user, consumers, whatever), whereas the stasi was secret, super secret. violent and secret. this is not to say that google mightn't become violent and secret in the future, but the same platform that they use is being used by us. ok, so maybe that doesn't make sense. i think caution is definitely needed, but so is believing in the power of the people.
I have to agree with Seb, about the power. but it's not the imment future I worry about.
See it's mostly the second generation that blows all the money from the founders on drugs and parties and sex.
So I don't have to many problems with them as long as S&L are at the helm.
What I wonder about is, what will happen when they are not here. I bet ya Leheman Brothers were not as cunty as the fuck ups that ruined the show now.
Might be another gens problem to deal with, but there's a lesson in there somewhere
you are one crazy mo'fo niko - and who the hell are S&L? and the Leheman Brothers? friends of yours? ha!
Serge and Larry, Lauren.
Two of the three founders.
and yes I misspeld Lehman Brothers (the fallen us bank), but my point still stands. we shoud be worried about the next gen leaders..
I'll just take your opinion of me in the friendly manner it is intented ;)
and, please...don't reply if they were intended differently..let me live the lie
This has to be one of the only blogs I read where the word "cunty" get's thrown up.
It's awesome.
age - really? wow! you need to start reading popbitch. or at least charles' blog!
niko - S&L - serge & larry! of course! sorry, just me being dumb. as was the lehman comment - lehmans reminded me of the wine guys here and i was all mixed up. and believe me, it was all in good fun. if i was being cunty, i would have emailed you. or made it perfectly clear that you were on the receiving end of my vitriol :)
Vitriol...that one just flew over my head...
aín't that some cunty shit ;)
but to be honest, I am a complicated mo'fo, just like Shaft..so good profiling.
Age, get out more!
Post a Comment