Just Googling It Is Striking Fear Into Companies

The NY Times, Technology ^ | Nov. 6, 2005 | Steve Lohr

[summer]

Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, often intimidates its competitors and suppliers. Makers of goods from diapers to DVD's must cater to its whims. But there is one company that even Wal-Mart eyes warily these days: Google, a seven-year-old business in a seemingly distant industry.

"We watch Google very closely at Wal-Mart," said Jim Breyer, a member of Wal-Mart's board.

In Google, Wal-Mart sees both a technology pioneer and the seed of a threat, said Mr. Breyer, who is also a partner in a venture capital firm. The worry is that by making information available everywhere, Google might soon be able to tell Wal-Mart shoppers if better bargains are available nearby.

Wal-Mart is scarcely alone in its concern. As Google increasingly becomes the starting point for finding information and buying products and services, companies that even a year ago did not see themselves as competing with Google are beginning to view the company with some angst - mixed with admiration.

Google's recent moves have stirred concern in industries from book publishing to telecommunications. Businesses already feeling the Google effect include advertising, software and the news media. Apart from retailing, Google's disruptive presence may soon be felt in real estate and auto sales...

...Such advances, predicts Esther Dyson, a technology consultant, will bring "a huge reduction in inefficiency everywhere." That, in turn, would be an unsettling force for all sorts of industries and workers. But it would also reward consumers with lower prices and open up opportunities for new companies.

Google, then, may turn out to have a more far-reaching impact than earlier Web winners like Amazon and eBay. "Google is the realization of everything that we thought the Internet was going to be about but really wasn't until Google," said David B. Yoffie, a professor at Harvard Business School...

[unsycophant]

The benefits of the Hello-Picasa services are that they're affiliated with Google and allow users to browse all the same photos together while chatting about them.

I could upload hundreds of pics almost instantly and a dozen others (by invitation only) could browse them, picking and choosing the ones they wanted, from a single screen.

I've used it for about two years now, and highly recommend it, as privacy is not an issue with this service.

[summer]

PS In short, the world is changing. I guess that's why this article I've posted about Google was not buried in the technology section of the NYT, but was was instead published on the Sunday NYT front page. Yet, some people still haven't gotten the message!

[summer]

You lost me on this comment: "as privacy is not an issue with this service."

Do you mean you are logging into a private site to view the photos?

[kingu]

What I don't think most people realize that just about every e-mail that goes across the internet is archived in at least one place, if not four or five places. I'm less worried about what Google will do with my e-mail than I am with Verizon, etc. At least with a web interface, you're cutting down on at least the upstream portion of that archive, and since most companies have a stable relationship with google, the e-mails generally get delivered directly to their destination.

So, yeah, never e-mail anything you wouldn't want to deal with in twenty years. But don't imagine that google is some evil empire waiting to trap you.

As an aside, to remove e-mail from google so it isn't in the active database (vs the archive which virtually nothing can stop), mark the e-mail as spam, open the spam folder, and delete the message. Works from either the inbox or the archive.

[summer]

Also, there are a number of other services that seem to do the same thing. Does Google claim to now be the owner of your photos? I ask that because Google's g-mail service seems to claim to be the owner of your email, based on what another poster said on this thread.

[Liberty Valance]

hehehehehehe
http://www.googleflex.com/

[summer]

What I don't think most people realize that just about every e-mail that goes across the internet is archived in at least one place, if not four or five places.

I agree with people's concerns and advice about email, but, frankly, I don't understand how what you said above can be true.

[summer]

OK, I missed the joke on that - what is Go Daddy doing with "google flex" there?? Or, am I even reading that wrong?

[summer]

vs the [Google] archive which virtually nothing can stop

Is this true for all other companies selling or offering emai services? That everything is archived? I am finding that hard to believe for everyone, though I would believe it with respect to Google.

[kingu]

Most major ISPs archive e-mail that travels through their systems. Inbound, outbound and pass-through. I suppose originally this was intended as temporary measures, but it has become standard practice.

If you go by some of the same websites that warn against e-mailing people at google, the FBI and the NSA also archive every e-mail that passes through any of the major peer to peer centers.

Terrorists tend to use message boards for this reason.

[Mr. Jeeves]

Here is something I predict: If public schools don't offer students the choice of being in class online -- instead of in a classroom -- then, more and more public school students will exit public school classrooms, and head for online classes wherever they can find those classes.

Think broader than that. Think no classes at all. Think no teachers at all. Think K-12 education completed by the average student on a notebook PC by age 12.

It scares the Left to death. They have spent so much time and effort and money infesting the education system, only to have all their work potentially swept away by technology - by a kid who finishes his calculus homework at at home by 11:00 am, then logs on to Free Republic to read the news. A kid who has completely slipped from their grasp, forever.

That's why they are freaking out - the whole public school edifice could instantly become the latest example of a buggy whip factory in the public's mind unless they keep brainwashing everyone about the sanctity of "our schools".

[summer]

Very interesting. So, obviously -- with all our advances online, with email, it still makes more sense to pick up the phone sometimes! Thanks. :)

[summer]

Although I must admit that was not always obvious to me. I prefer email, simply because I can go back and reread and rethink what someone said, and that's harder to do if you're talking by phone -- but I am really trying to use email less often now, for many reasons. Even though it's not my preference. I realize I have to get a cell phone!

[summer]

Well, I actually have mixed feelings about what you said, though I believe you are correct in terms of MAJOR changes down the road for public education.

And, the reason I believe that, by the way, is because of this simple fact: Technology really IS where the kids are today. Kids today know more about technology than the VAST majority of their public school teachers. I just read a study that said something like 60% of kids have created content online -- that's unimaginable to most public school teachers, many of whom can barely turn on a computer.

But, having said that, for as long as I have been on this forum, I have always supported the public schools, and still do, as one valid choice among many choices parents have to educate their kids. It doesn't mean I think public education is perfect; it just means I do believe there will always be kids who will need that option or parents who will prefer that option.

However, it does not surprise me, ever, that homeschooling parents are the ones who know the most about technology, or that homeschooled kids tend to be very comforable with technology, or, that homeschooling continues to be the fastest growing movement in education. There are simply more and more choices out there now for parents, and parents who are online expect their kids will have to have technology skills, too.

I think a lot of public school students attend great public schools, but even in those schools, it's the kids who know more about technology and use it more than the teachers. Adults' usage rate of technology is still in the single digits in terms of creating online content, etc. while those kids are going at it like it's nothing. So there is a disconnect which is growing larger with each passing day.

And, the end result, down the road, may well be what you imagine, in many respects. In that sense I agree with you. Thanks for your comments.

[pollyannaish]

No too long ago, I ran across an article here on FR that was talking about the way that most "trends" are analyzed by the press. The upshot was: They aren't. Articles about trends are actually slightly revised press releases from business attempting to position their products as trendy.

IMO, this is no exception. What better way for Google to position itself than as the "slayer of the big bad discounter WalMart and other evil bastions of greed."

The irony here is that Google is not quite what it is claiming to be, and neither is WalMart. They are both businesses with strengths and weaknesses just like every other business, large or small.

IOW, I would take this particular article with a grain of salt. The one thing that Google, or any other Internet business understands, is the relative conceit of human beings and especially those involved in something that allows them to gain a certain amount of "control"...and they are blatantly stroking that particular human failing in an attempt to boost their profits.And there is nothing wrong with that.

However, there is something wrong with the NYT passing it off as "news analysis."

[pollyannaish]

An excellent reminder as to why one must always behave the same way online as they would standing in the middle of a grocery store.

[swheats]

"A national free Google-net internet service"

We all know nothing's really free you'll be paying the cost somewhere down the road. If not monetary it'll be brainwashing unsuspecting users into the gay/lesbian agenda or some leftwing dependent tripe.

[Extremely Extreme Extremist]

I fricking hate Hotmail. Lamest email service out there.

[swheats]

Speaking of depends. I just happened to be searching for underpads for one of my children yesterday. I used google and altavista to search out locations locally that carried my product, then went to amazon.com to see their price and realized it was cheaper buying locally.

The system does work very well. It's the shipping costs that determine my shopping habits.

[Gondring]

You will not even be able to hide behind screen names. Eventually, somebody will find a way to link your screen name to your real name. Scary stuff but it's inevitable.

As I have admitted on FR before, my real name is Hillary Rodham Clinton, and I hope to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law if I have done anything illegal.

;-)