Wednesday 24 November 2010

Google Issues

Google's Mission statement is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

Originally just a search engine Google has since expanded into mail, browsers, data services, chat, voice messaging, blogging and many other things in between.

It could be said that Google has had it quite easy in recent years; they have a captive audience, the #1 search engine, leading towards a situation where whatever they launch or whatever they do it will be successful.

It hasn't always been plain sailing for Google, many products have had to take a step back because either the cliental they were meant to serve was unacceptable or the design and functionality was inappropriate. A recent example of this Google Buzz. Buzz enables users to to share publicly with the world or privately to a group of friends each time they post. It came under tremendous criticism from both the general and technical press in the manner in which it was rolled out.

Furthermore Google Street View, a web based system where users can point exactly to a real live image of a destination has come under some sticky press in recent months, with whether or not they have the right to broadcast pictures of where people live.

So, Google is fantastic but as always there are two sides to every argument, you can say that with the enormous power of products, as Google has such as Android and other Google products, they have a captive audience. However they maybe not be everyone's cup of tea, particularly legally as organisations, governments can question what they are trying to do with their information and for what purpose.

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