There's a great article on CNNMoney.com entitled Imagining the Google Future about just what lay in wait in regards to one of our most popular and ingenious search engines. They used input from four experts to create four distinct scenarios in which Google has flourished--or failed. And it's no bull either; each essay cites inspiring texts, interviews, and data to back up their version of the Google future. From the article, which was found via Slashdot:
What kind of company will Google become in the coming decades? Will it succumb to hubris and flame out like so many of its predecessors? Or will it grow into an omnipresent, omnipotent force--not just on Wall Street or the Web, but in society? We put the question to scientists, consultants, former Google employees, and tech visionaries like Ray Kurzweil and Stephen Wolfram. They responded with well-argued, richly detailed, and sometimes scary visions of a Google future.
Each of the four scenarios is quite interesting and seem completely reasonable. And yeah, maybe a-little-bit-more-than scary. My favourite line is from the fourth scenario, "Google is God": "We are not scanning all these books to be read by people. We are scanning them to be read by an AI." Sounds about right to me.
I'd just like to point out that I theorized on the same thing months ago, albeit not with the technological expertise to back it up. It's a Google World After All. From my post, which was more in regards to the then-recent release of GoogleTalk and the end of Gmail beta:
Soon there will be a Google nation, which you can move to only if they invite you via SMS to your cell, and everyone will use the same Google operating system and there will be no computer cross-compatibility issues ever again. And free wifi and white double grandé mochaccino lattes for all.I'm not sure I mind my version of a Google future... ;)
Word of the day, used at the end of Scenario 3: schadenfreude (n.), pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. Just in case; 'cos yaknow, I didn't know. :P
1 comment:
Love your blog. Interesting post about the Google future. I think that Microsoft will have something to say about any "Google Nation," and if Google isn't successful at developing long-term alternative revenue sources in fairly short order, it may be moot anyway.
--L.
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