27 February 2009

Does Google control my life?


I couldn't resist the title.

A couple of minutes ago, I had a panic attack as I couldn't open Google mail on my browser. The reason is that it's nearly 2 am and I am going through a draft of a book chapter I am writing with my supervisor. I am really sleepy and I am meeting her at 11am tomorrow, and I really needed to go through the reviewer's feedback to see whether I have covered all the points.

I had a similar problem yesterday and even though the problem was solved after restarting my computer, which may indicate that the problem is with my computer rather than with Google. However, it made me wonder whether I am being too dependent on Google.

I use my Google mail account to read my university mail, moderate my comments and also to read Twitter updates and Tweet (using Twitter Gadget). It's also linked to my Paypal, Amazon and eBay accounts. I also use the Google calender to manage my appointments which is shared and syncronised with my wife's. There are a few documents shared with friends via Google documents.

Besides that, I have most of my blogs hosted with Blogger (which is also owned by Google). And I am guessing that I am not the only one.

I shudder to think what would happen if Google were to shut down even for a day - there might be utter chaos in the World.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Besides the fear of google shutting down, I'm more worried about the data google have about me and what they can do if they wanted :)

I use Gmail as my primary e-mail, Gtalk for chat, Blogger for one of my "personal" blogs, Picasa to store and manage photos, Google Calender, Orkut(I have been more active on Facebook, but some of my friends are still stuck with Orkut), these past few days I have started using Google docs more often, use Google Reader for me RSS feeds, and the only search engine I use is Google, upload videos on Youtube, google checkout for online shopping.

So Google basically knows anything and everything about me!!!!! Scary!

Anonymous said...

I am certainly dependent on Google. If I want to find out something, I do now ask friends, but Google. I have an email on Gmail, and I use Google docs.
All the people I know are dependent on Google too.
Actually statistics say that 90% of Internet users use regularly search engines, and probably 60% of them use Google.

Anonymous said...

I can relate to this. I can't live without it. I Google everything!

In Google I trust.

Anonymous said...

Certainly! Even I am the one who also dependant on Google very much. So Google can control your life as it does for many.

Anonymous said...

Google is a platform where we can find all kind of thing.
Thanks

nA said...

everyday i always look for any information on google, i can get it all on google... even when i search for new recipe or tips for taking care my baby..

google is very useful in my life..

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