Try to beat this.
We have an AutoCad programmer in our office. An IT guy was setting up a computer for him. He requested internet access on his machine. The IT guy said it was set up already. To show him, he launched Internet Explorer. The MSN site came up by default.
"There you go!", the IT guy said.
The AutoCad programmer was a little confused. He said, "I want the internet!"
The IT guy asked, "What exactly do you want?"
"Google", the programmer said!
During the entire time he spent on computers, the browser probably had Google as the default site. This led him to assume that Google was actually, the internet!
Though this incident might be dismissed as a one-off thing, what is important to note is that this guy was an AutoCad programmer. To the vast majority of people who use their computers primarily for email and the internet and to edit the odd document, this could ring even truer.
The way Google controls so much of our lives - think of how much we rely on it - is sometimes scary.
Comments
I think google does not control anything (i.e. the search engine). Of course what makes it a bit complicated is the use of all the other services like gmail and blogger etc. And for me it is interesting to see how the Google has become the new Microsoft (or on its way) in terms of perception. I do not think google deserves this. Nevertheless, their attempt at Buzz showed how they need some reality check.
This guy must be using google homepage to go to other sites. In any case, I just strongly felt that this is not about google but that particular guy. If a Uzbekistan news paper was the default home page on the computers he used...he probably would think that it is the Internet !
Scary ? About something we use ?
Ok...then lets be scared about electricty...just about everything that is ubiquitos.
Oh well, I know you did not mean it that way but I just am reacting to what people keep talking about scary this is doing etc etc...while in most cases it is our own wish and will. Case in point as to how iPhone supposedly controls me....but now I am not blaming iPhone...I am saying that I am addicted to iPhone. Why blame the damn device when it is we.
Just Gooooooooooooooogle it...