I’ve written often about Google Creep, the notion that the search engine’s tendrils are seeping into every aspect of the Internet realm, from broadband networks (no, really) to social networks (Buzz), to niche Web services such as annotations to ambitious forays into mobile platforms (Android).
Some are still waiting for Google to build robots that cook and clean for us. Presumably, these Googlebots, cyborg iterations of the company’s broad Web services, would also tell us anything we need to know.
Until then, we can discuss what Google has done or is trying to do. This video from Australian ABC show Hungry Beast, called to my attention by a privacy watchdog no less, strips aside the details and nuances and boils down the essence of Google as Big Brother figure:
I especially find apt the comment from Intel advisor (and former, not current CEO, as the video incorrectly states) Andy Grove about Google being a company “on steroids, with a finger in every industry.”
Probably because I’ve been writing about it ad nauseum. This sort of video, which Google supporters will label propaganda, will likely be a evidence point in antitrust cases going forward.
Why? The video claims Google wants to “own” areas such mobile phones, e-mail, computers and “your entire digital life,” including the pipes that deliver the bits.
Worse, the video hammers Google on privacy for the Google Buzz, Google Maps and Street View issues.
Make no mistake: There will be government antitrust cases versus Google. It’s only a matter of when and what parties will bring them.
The noose is growing tighter. The company I began covering in August 2007 has evolved and is looking Microsoftian and it may be Microsoft whom it faces in court.
Wouldn’t that be the The Irony to beat all ironies?