ARTICLE NO. 10    December 14, 2005

All Your Base are Belong to Google

by

Because "giving away" one of the most powerful analytic applications away isn’t enough, Google is now out to take on Exchange (well, in a way). Google Base is potentially rather revolutionary. Not that an online, freeform database is something that hasn’t been attempted before but this is, after all, Google Base.

Google creating a free system to help catalog any type of data should rattle a few cages; if you think that the Google Maps API was exciting just think what a global, crowd maintained super database will let people do (especially with a more-than-certain accompanying API). So when the rattling stops, and the animals have settled down again we can start forgetting how the world was like when we didn’t feed every bit of information we had into Google.

Let’s take a step back and look at what Google is handling right now: the web (Google Search ); our personal browsing habits (Toolbar , Analytics ); zeitgeist/press (News , Groups , Blogsearch , Blogger ); our shopping habbits (Froogle ); where we go/are (Maps , Earth , Local ); our entertainment (Video , Images , Picassa ); our files (Desktop ); our communication (Gmail , Talk ); and now everything else (Google Base ). All that and we’d still rather pinch its rosy cheeks, and coo at its adorable little thematic logos than start boarding the windows and wrap tin foil around our heads.

I wonder how people would react if say Microsoft got there first. To be honest, I’m still surprised they consistently get in 2nd or 3rd but seeing that people would most definitely, well, freak out maybe it’s actually a brilliant way to go about it. See, you can let Google do all this "world domination" stuff under their warm & fuzzy, carebear, "they do it because they love us" image; then, when nobody’s looking do the same thing without getting too much heat.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Alex is CEO of Sideshow , an award winning creative agency. You can read his blog here.

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September 12, 2009
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August 25, 2009
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December 21, 2005
interesting thoughts. it really is amazing people love and trust google so much. but how could you not when they give us all these amazing lifechanging softwares for free?! google earth itself is enough to warrant the affection, but the list goes on and on…
December 21, 2005
Indeed. And on and on and on… Haven’t you noticed that Google stuff is always easy to “sell” to otherwise technofobic family members? “Wow, it converts units?”—I guess that building great stuff pays off.
January 05, 2006
Thank you Alex for pointing this out.

Well at least the next world dominator won’t be Microsoft, but ironically, I’m on Microsoft’s side, I’m pro ASP Classic, pro Bill Gates and admit in using a non-IE browser for safety.

A few years ago Google was the number one search engine, based on my user and webmaster experience, that was then.

Today, Google is a lousy search engine, nobody cares about Froogle, it is only good for Adword until Yahoo goes full fledge with their own context ads.

I actually want to see Google go down, and maybe be useful for adword, that’s about it. They wanted to go public? No more rosy cheeks.
January 05, 2006
Cudly.

Now I’m scared.
January 11, 2006
Who cares. Google thinks they’re the greatest, but the fortune does not always favor the bold. In the end they will their lesson. Something bad wil happen and the stocks will crash and then bye bye. Hopefully Microsoft will just swallow them and then it is over.
January 12, 2006
http://www.google-watch.org/

some interesting thoughts…
January 12, 2006
small prediction: google as part of internet comunity -> google as big brother -> google as enemy of comunity.

we are observing phase 2 now and start of phase 3
January 30, 2006
uhm, are all you ppl so anti-google?
I’ve not yet had my great dissapointments with google…
someone enlighten me what the hell you M$ ppl are talking about?
ASP better than PHP?
MSN search better than Google?
oh come on you guys must be kidding :/
and about that google-watch stuff:
some loser found his page didn’t rank high enough and suddenly the world’s best advertisement algorythm ain’t good enough?
>> www.google-watch-watch.org
jees you guys, you should all BURN of shame!
you’re missing the goal these engineers have at Google:
to change the world to a better place!
it’s called revolution and that’s what M$ hasn’t been about for a long time, if you are dumb enough to use IE, you might even know that…
ah heck,I’ll give it a rest, your minds are set on MS and that ain’t gonna change because MS is all about conservativity, which is one of the worse attitudes you can have towards ICT and all things related to it.
January 30, 2006
I think it’s important not to be too one-sided here. The article was more about the people’s perception of Google vs that of Microsoft. I for one don’t particularily believe that neither Microsoft nor Google are particularily “evil” or “good”, especially not the engineers. I’m more partial to PHP but that’s NOT because ASP is from Microsoft. I use Google for web-searches but I prefer Microsoft’s desktop search. We have Linux and Microsoft servers, work on Linux and Microsoft workstations (and soon, Apple.) There’s no reason being pro or anti anything, we need to maintain a degree of vigilance and skeptisism.
February 09, 2006
True, Google is the same shit like Microsoft and Apple just at the start of their lifecycle.
February 14, 2006
I think those at Google are some of the best designers. They’ve taken notice of things on the web that needed attention and have gone way, way above and beyond to increase productivity, entertainment, useability, and interaction. They certainly work for the people. Incredible!
December 14, 2005
I think those at Google are some of the best designers. They’ve taken notice of things on the web that needed attention and have gone way, way above and beyond to increase productivity, entertainment, useability, and interaction. They certainly work for the people. Incredible!
December 14, 2005
True, Google is the same shit like Microsoft and Apple just at the start of their lifecycle.
December 14, 2005
I think it’s important not to be too one-sided here. The article was more about the people’s perception of Google vs that of Microsoft. I for one don’t particularily believe that neither Microsoft nor Google are particularily “evil” or “good”, especially not the engineers. I’m more partial to PHP but that’s NOT because ASP is from Microsoft. I use Google for web-searches but I prefer Microsoft’s desktop search. We have Linux and Microsoft servers, work on Linux and Microsoft workstations (and soon, Apple.) There’s no reason being pro or anti anything, we need to maintain a degree of vigilance and skeptisism.
December 14, 2005
uhm, are all you ppl so anti-google?
I’ve not yet had my great dissapointments with google…
someone enlighten me what the hell you M$ ppl are talking about?
ASP better than PHP?
MSN search better than Google?
oh come on you guys must be kidding :/
and about that google-watch stuff:
some loser found his page didn’t rank high enough and suddenly the world’s best advertisement algorythm ain’t good enough?
>> www.google-watch-watch.org
jees you guys, you should all BURN of shame!
you’re missing the goal these engineers have at Google:
to change the world to a better place!
it’s called revolution and that’s what M$ hasn’t been about for a long time, if you are dumb enough to use IE, you might even know that…
ah heck,I’ll give it a rest, your minds are set on MS and that ain’t gonna change because MS is all about conservativity, which is one of the worse attitudes you can have towards ICT and all things related to it.
December 14, 2005
small prediction: google as part of internet comunity -> google as big brother -> google as enemy of comunity.

we are observing phase 2 now and start of phase 3
December 14, 2005
http://www.google-watch.org/

some interesting thoughts…
December 14, 2005
Who cares. Google thinks they’re the greatest, but the fortune does not always favor the bold. In the end they will their lesson. Something bad wil happen and the stocks will crash and then bye bye. Hopefully Microsoft will just swallow them and then it is over.
December 14, 2005
Cudly.

Now I’m scared.
December 14, 2005
Thank you Alex for pointing this out.

Well at least the next world dominator won’t be Microsoft, but ironically, I’m on Microsoft’s side, I’m pro ASP Classic, pro Bill Gates and admit in using a non-IE browser for safety.

A few years ago Google was the number one search engine, based on my user and webmaster experience, that was then.

Today, Google is a lousy search engine, nobody cares about Froogle, it is only good for Adword until Yahoo goes full fledge with their own context ads.

I actually want to see Google go down, and maybe be useful for adword, that’s about it. They wanted to go public? No more rosy cheeks.
December 14, 2005
Indeed. And on and on and on… Haven’t you noticed that Google stuff is always easy to “sell” to otherwise technofobic family members? “Wow, it converts units?”—I guess that building great stuff pays off.