Michael Gower
12/09/09
Intro to Mass Communication
Google's Effect: Here and Abroad
Google is a massive company that has its hands in much of the global market: their search engine, Youtube, phones, and internet advertising. This media giant is centered in the U.S, but it affects the global market with every move it makes. Google's activities have the potential to change traditional media and computing. It even plays a part in government policy and law.
Google has been revolutionizing traditional media from the beginning, one of their biggest changes being internet advertisement. Advertising on the internet was mostly owned and run by two major companies: Google and Adsense, but Google changed all that when they purchased Adsense, and owned most of the biggest Internet advertising company.(http://www.namenexus.net/google-buys-adsense-com/) Their purchase of Adsense massively increased their size and reach on the Internet, but another purchase made them the biggest online video broadcaster; Youtube.(http://www.google.com/press/pressrel/google_youtube.html) Buying Youtube was costly at first, but resulted in Google controlling the biggest video site on the internet. Having both Youtube and Adsense makes them the place where people go on the internet. Most people use Adsense on their websites, post videos on Youtube, and use other Google products like Gmail, and the Google search engine itself. Google has revolutionized the online media industry in more ways than the ones I mentioned (like Google Wave), and they are only getting bigger. Now, computers, internet sites and related items are far more than just a business tool. They are products and services, which are a thriving part of commerce. They have changed the way we live and do business, and the word “Google” is now a commonly used verb.
Google’s worldwide effects don't stop with just media, they also have been changing the world of technology and computing, some would say for the better. One of these big changes came about when Google announced their very own phone operating system, or OS, called Android. This allowed them to get a foothold in the phone market, and while they don't necessarily own a phone company like Verizon or AT&T, they are making more and more of the computing world open source. (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/11/wheres-my-gphone.html) Open source is basically software that is released with the source code, so other developers can edit the software any way they want. Open source software is changing the industry in ways people couldn't have predicted,with innovations such as the release of Google Chrome (their web browser) and the announcement of Google Chrome OS (their computer operating system). (http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/32156/review/chrome.html) Both of these are open source, extremely flexible, and very light (computer resource wise). Google seems to know exactly what people want, and sometime in the future, it wouldn't be too far-fetched if most of the major software on most peoples computer was made by the media giant.
Google’s influence is not limited to computers and media. Google has also had an effect on governments worldwide. One of the biggest was in China. China had been trying to censor the internet, but Google wasn't easy, with its open search that wasn't restricted. China told Google to censor itself, and Google complied, much to the outrage of the rest of the world. However, the censorship still stands to this day, and shows that even a giant like Google can be ordered around. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4645596.stm) Yes, this isn't a case of Google changing the government, but it is having an effect on the image of the government. People around the world heard about this story, and China's internet censorship actions resulted in some bad press for the Chinese government. Not that anyone in China could read the articles anyway because of the heavy censorship. Despite the Chinese censorship, Google isn't a supporter of any form of internet censorship. In fact, Google is a big supporter of Net Neutrality, the idea that all data on the internet has the same priority. Currently, we have net neutrality, but companies like Comcast are trying to change that. Internet service providers like Comcast, or Time Warner are trying to pass a law that would allow them to charge for different tiers of internet, and give specific websites priority, so all the little websites that can't pay get consumed by bigger ones. Google is standing up against them, and has even spoken out against laws that are proposed. Google may not be able to take on the country of China, but they definitely have a much bigger role in the American government. (http://www.google.com/help/netneutrality_letter.html)
Overall, Google isn't an evil, monopolistic company. It may seem that they are, considering their size and reach, but all they have really made are vital innovations that are advancing the world in exciting new ways. Yes, maybe in the future we will only use Gmail, Google, Chrome, Chrome OS, maybe even a Google internet service provider or phone company. Hopefully the effects Google is having on our world will be more positive than negative, but undeniably, our world has changed because of them.
