Flashist

Google has just celebrated its 10th anniversary this week, and they seem to have given us geeks a little present with a pagerank update.

It’s funny when you think about it that Google is only 10 years old, it seems as if it’s been around for ever. I guess if they hadn’t materialised someone else would have filled their place, but it seems pretty remarkable how they have risen to become the unchallenged gatekeeper of all knowledge as far as most of us are concerned.  I’m pretty sure George Orwell would have a thing or two to say about that and the frankfurt school, but then the Marxists are always banging on about something.

The latest figures show that Google has roughly an 85% share of the UK search engine market, and 60 per cent in the USA, with over four billion searches a month through its network . It also owns more computers than anyone in the world and has become the biggest provider of advertising in the UK, eclipsing terrestrial television channels like ITV and channel four.  Thats not bad for a company that only 10 years old!

Research suggests that very few people ever venture onto the second page of results, relying and trusting googles opinion to be unbiased and objective on all sorts of areas of their lives. On the one hand we let G tell us the best place to buy some shoes or what’s going on in the world around us, and on the other they’re cleaning up serving us ads. It has been fashionable for a few years to bang on about Microsoft being the antichrist, whilst Google is seen as the white Knight, it’s amazing what a good home page can do for you!

Despite this capitalist behemoth being firmly in control of society’s information flows very few people seem to question its ideological values or its impartiality and integrity. It seems quite remarkable that despite Google being essentially an advertising company it receives little critical attention in the mainstream, with most people totally happy to trust the information served up. 

Unfortunately though Google have set some questionable precedents in China, making deals with the government to censor access to certain search terms in order to gain a foothold in the fastest growing search market in the world.  They have shown that the advertising buck means more to them than free speech. Their corporate motto is dont be evil, but surely that’s the best thing to say if your going to be.

We’re not so far off from the world of George Orwell’s 1984 now, Google could be seen to be be the ultimate example of panapticon , invisibly exercising power. They monitor our every move through search engine and google toolbar, and filter the information we see. Google do very well at making themselves out to be the philanthropist, releasing source code for developers and providing them places to host their own code.  Keeping the most technologically literate individuals sweet, is no doubt the great way to pull off a coup without anyone complaining.

It must sound like I’m not too keen on Google, but if you know me then you’ll know that’s far from the truth. I spend half my life optimising websites and exploring the intricacies of the algorithm, like a rat in a maze.  Big G sends a steady stream of cheese to my door without me paying it a penny, and my success so far can be credited largely to its favour.  The whole Google story is fascinating, and they’re doing pretty damn well for a 10 year old. But we should remember  that there is more to the Internet than Google.  If people keep finding their information through one source we’re asking for trouble.

Happy birthday Google, let’s see where we are in 2018!