How Google Has Gained World Domination
By Drew Muller
I doubt the names Larry Page and Sergey Brin ring any bells. They were just Stanford University Ph.D. students who decided to begin a research project that would revolutionize the way we navigate the vast frontier of the Internet. This little project, conducted on the side of their studies, is infinitely more recognizable than the men who brought it to life. We use it every day to find the answers to the world’s most enduring questions, such as “Why is my poop green?” and the exact gender specification of Lady Gaga. Page and Brin, better known as “The Google Guys,” gave us the cure-all to any and every query we might have, and seven years after Google’s public inception, it’s stronger than ever.
The company’s former unofficial slogan is “Don’t be evil,” and is probably unofficial for a good reason. The statement is a little chilling, almost as if Google is hiding something from us, perhaps masking malevolent motives behind a friendly face of easy browsing. It’s hard to think of Google as evil, with its innocent-looking bubble letters and cutesy homepage designs, but maybe that’s all part of the plot to cloak its yearning for global domination.
Google has been rapidly expanding, engulfing companies and expanding its scope at a blistering pace. It’s been in a deal-making frenzy, absorbing 57 companies and surpassing its 2010 record of 48 acquisitions—and it’s only October. The transactions, which total $1.4 billion in the first nine months of 2011, include Zagat, an online restaurant review site, Daily Deals, a discount site similar to Groupon, and ITA Software, a travel software company. Google only had to dish out pocket change and it can now tell us where to eat, what to buy, and how to travel.
Google has pervaded virtually every crevice of society, from social networking, with Google+, to wireless payments, with Google Wallet (set to be revealed some time this year) and even the automobile industry with its driverless car that could technically render humans unnecessary. Whether the Google Guys are determined to consolidate every conceivable type of technology for optimal access and ease or if they’re voraciously power-hungry still remains to be seen.
Google is a major part of our lives—no one can deny that, but let’s just pray its future developments don’t play out in an Orwellian fashion. Is Google going to take over the world, you ask? Well, I can’t tell you that, but I could always Google it.