Beholden to Google: Good or Bad?

The speculation about Google launching a “GDrive” to let people store their photos, music and documents has been jump-started after people with clearly lots of time on their hands found some code within the Google Pack software bundle providing some hints of what’s to come.

Given how online storage has become so popular, especially, as people become more comfortable with having things happen and stored in the cloud, the interest in the GDrive is understandable. Of course, there’s excitement about any new product that Google unveils given it’s Google.

While not every service Google rolls out is successful, what’s particularly interesting is how you can find yourself using a wide range of Google services without even thinking about it.

You start with Google search, then dabble with Google News, slide into GMail, rumble into GReader, check out Google Blog Search, happily discover Google Docs, and tumble into Picasa. Before you know it, Google has become a daily and integral part of your digital portfolio.

Not that this a bad thing given Google’s products are really good but it should make you think about how dependent you can become on Google for pretty much everything. The downside is you can lose access to a lot of essential information if Google, for whatever reason, locks you out.

Ask anyone who has suddenly and mysteriosly found themselves in this situation how difficult it can be to get back in Google’s good books.

It makes you think that if variety is the spice of life, perhaps using services other than Google is a good thing.

For more, check out Google Operating System, which shows the code that was discovered with Google Packs.

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One Comment

  1. Posted April 30, 2009 at 11:07 am | Permalink

    Google just launched its hosting service – appengine.google.com
    This seems so very much like dark days of the Microsoft OS monopoly. Who can forget the memories of; stifled competition, and price fixing. In this case Google does the arm twisting AND knuckle cracking by dropping the pricing of a service to free. Goolge is using the advantage of massive scale built on the backs of consumers and media to choke the life out of them and any competitor. Do we now face a world where all apps are run on the google platform and coded to their specifications. Have we forgotten what happened to Borland, Netscape, and Novel.

5 Trackbacks

  1. By The Latest on Google’s GDrive | BUZZ NEWSROOM on January 30, 2009 at 8:33 am

    [...] course, there’s excitement about any new product that Google unveils given it’s Google. – from Mark [...]

  2. By Why Google Needs the GDrive to Fight Microsoft on January 30, 2009 at 4:06 pm

    [...] my friend Mark Evans points out, “Before you know it, Google has become a daily and integral part of your digital portfolio. Not [...]

  3. [...] my friend Mark Evans points out, “Before you know it, Google has become a daily and integral part of your digital portfolio. Not [...]

  4. [...] He goes on to worry about Google getting too big by quoting Mark Evans: [...]

  5. [...] my friend Mark Evans points out, “Before you know it, Google has become a daily and integral part of your digital portfolio. Not [...]

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