Will Google Rule the World?

Lois S. Levine-Elman, M.S.

OLLI at Widener University

Spring 2012 Class 1

Googlization of Everything has permeated our culture.

A ubiquitous brand.

Part of the common vernacular.Google is used as a noun and a verb everywhere

What Does The Word “Google” Mean?

Google basically is a play on the word “googol”

A “googol” is a number

followed by 100 zeros•  Goooooooooo,oooooooooo,oooooooooo,

oooooooooo,oooooooooo,oooooooooo,oooooooooo,oooooooooo,oooooooooo,oooooooooogle

Google’s play on the term reflects the company’s intention to organize the immense amount of information currently on the web and beyond.

Questions?• Why is Google always in the news?• How do Google’s business decisions

and product development impact my life?

• How do Google’s business decisions and product development impact people and nations around the world?

• Is Google on the verge of becoming indistinguishable from the Web itself?

Course Goals• To identify the techniques which Google

has used to achieved prominence on the Web.

• To look at the ways Google is seeking to achieve prominence in other areas of technology.

• To create thought provoking discussions on Google’s multifaceted technologies and their impact on global social issues which affect:– personal privacy– information access – product competition.

Techno-cultural Imagination

• What sorts of historical factors influence why one technology “succeeds” and another fails?

• What are the cultural and economic assumptions that influence the ways a technology works in the world?

• To what extent do technologies guide, influence, or determine history?

• To what extent do social conditions mold technologies?• To what extent do technologies mold social changes?

• Can technologies spark revolutions?

Every Generation Has to Adapt to New Technologies

When you were young, how did your parents cope with the technological change?

Exponential increase in computing power every 2 years.

How are you and your friends coping With the new digital technologies?

Moore’s Law:

Understanding Google is like a blind man being able to describe

an elephant.

Google Markets its Image-Little Tramp Video

Mission Statement “to organize the world’s information and

make it universally accessible and useful” • create

the perfect

search

engine.

Google Orchestrates Many Different Online Services and Products for Public Use.

Google Juggles the Production of Other Products and Services

Operating System for Mobile Phones

Google Chrome Browser for the Web

Google ownsMotorola for Digital media.

Inventions in the Pipeline

Glasses that project the web and entertainment to the eyes of the wearer. Developed by Google X at a lab in a hidden location in California.

Interview Techniques theWay Google asks potential employeesquestions such as:

You are shrunk to the heightof a nickel and thrown into a blender. Your mass is reducedSo that your density is the sameAs usual. The blades start movingIn sixty seconds. What do you do?

Other companies are copying Google