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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