Week 5 Reflection: Is Google Good or Evil?

Google - Don't Be Evil
Google - What do you really know about me? As a Gmail account holder for the past three years and a Google search user for the past five or six years, I would love to see the file Google has on me. They must know me pretty well. Most recently, they know that I search for A LOT of artwork on Google images and art lessons. If Google weren't evil, they would cater to my every need by emailing me suggestions of things that they KNOW I would find useful. Hmm...to the Google employee reading this, will that be your next pet project? But as much as they "know" about me, they don't really "know" me. So I think. Do they know my favorite drink at Starbucks is a Caramel Macchiato. Well, they do now, but I doubt it before because I've never searched for a Caramel Macchiato. I think I've only looked at the Starbucks website once when I got a little curious about how many calories a Grande Caramel Macchiato actually has. A lot, I found out, even with Non-fat Milk. Do they know that I am for being Green and environmentally friendly? (I hope you are too Google.) Do they know what music I like? Unless they tapped into my Pandora account, which has my Gmail as the email, no. So in other words, yes. Do they know what sports I like and that I don't like 99% of television?

My main qualm with Google is the fact that they don't delete my email I want deleted. If I want it gone, I want it gone. What's it to you Google? Put it in the Cyber Space Paper Shredder, cross-cut please. And the Flight Tracker? Who's the brains behind that one? I can't believe that one person actually thought that was a good idea, let alone the entire company. Hmm...I'm questioning your common sense Google. Something that I've learned though is that common sense is not at all common, it's a rarity among men and women. That means it's even more rare among companies.

As much as I don't like the big guy to have all the power (and arguably they don't), I think Google is doing some great things. Google Scholar came in handy searching for academic sources in undergrad. I used Google maps today. I get a kick out of the ads they put on my emails. I never click on them and usually I'm blind to them. However, sometimes in my peripheral vision, I catch something. I lied. I clicked on two of them. One was about coffee. (So maybe they DO know me!) The other did prove very useful when I was looking for a cheap ticket from MCI to BDL.

I did feel more comforted when I came across this in the comments:
"When the American government came knocking for user's data - both Yahoo and Microsoft handed it over without batting an eyelid. Google refused, and took it to court."

So Google, I've got your back. Do you have mine?