engine - 6:45 pm on Mar 23, 2012 (gmt 0)

I was just about to start to write something on this when I read a couple of great pieces that were just published.

The Case Against Google [gizmodo.com]

It's stunning when you stop and think about it. Search isn't just what Google does best, it's what it is in most people's minds. The company's name is often used as a verb meaning "to search." It's in the Oxford English Dictionary! So what happened?

It's a pretty long article, but it's an interesting read.

Secondly, in response to that, All Things D continues on with an article titled, "What Google Hasn’t Done: Explained Why We as Users Would Want a Unified Online Identity" [allthingsd.com]

After years of providing us with many very good products — search, Gmail, Google Maps, YouTube, Chrome — Google is now on a mission to turn itself into one big product that understands each of us as one unified person.

Google is in the process of tying all its products together so our usage of each one can inform the others, but it hasn’t really told users what’s going on and what it means. And as its set of products becomes more interwoven, Google is cross-promoting them ahead of the competition.

Again, all interesting reading.

This all points to Google on a tipping point, imho. People will either embrace the moves to own our every move, or there will start being a backlash from the general public.

[edited by: engine at 7:13 pm (utc) on Mar 23, 2012]