"Don't be evil": Google's informal corporate motto has been the topic of a certain amount of media buzz over the past several weeks. Despite its previous acceptance of the censorship necessary to do web business in China, Google decided that a recent spate of cyber-attacks was too much and ceased providing services the United States' largest creditor. The same motto that drove this action was mocked soon afterward by Steve Jobs. Most people wrote off Jobs' rant to his snittiness at the iPad's lukewarm reception I agree with this sentiment: it seems awfully childish of Steve to get so testy because everyone did not immediately dissolve into moans of pleasure when his high-tech feminine hygiene device was revealed.
Now the latest Google-centric chatter is about the release of Buzz, a new social platform that seeks to integrate Facebook and Twitter-like functionality into Google's services. Google, it seems, wants to have a hand in everything you do online. Add this to the fact that what Google sets out to do, it (usually, though not always: see "Wave") does quite well and for free, and you've already got people calling for Twitter's demise.
New-app-will-kill-old-app rhetoric is pretty common around the web, and it usually turns out to be hyperbole. Perhaps Buzz will not wipe out Twitter and Facebook, but I can see it absorbing a large chunk of their user bases. In addition to Google's aforementioned strengths, Buzz addresses a true need: there's tons of places to update one's status and read others' opinions these days. It can be overwhelming. Consider the following scenario:
DAR has decided that he wants to Avatar for the third time, so he buys tickets on Fandango and has a swell time at the theater. Afterwards, DAR desperately wants to tell the Internet about how much he enjoyed the viewing, and suddenly a bevy of verbed nouns besets him: Does he Facebook his thoughts? Tweet his feelings? Blog his observations? Furthermore, how does he keep up with all the things that his friends and other various people are saying about the movie? Now his problem is dealing with Facebook notifications, Retweets, and the 300 feeds in his his RSS reader. Wouldn't it be great if he could do all these things in his Gmail inbox?
Buzz will address this need. And the fact gives me pause.
This is not to say, Dear Reader, that I am not a fan of Google. Oh, indeed I am: I send emails from Gmail on my Android-powered phone, then my Google Calendar reminds me of an appointment across town, the location of which I find with the help of Google Maps, and while I am waiting in the lobby, I read Google News, again on my Google phone. Very rarely do I actually buy an application or service for my personal use without checking to make sure that Google has not already done it (and for free). A huge chunk of my online life already rests on Google. Only rarely do I pause to contemplate Google's stranglehold on online advertising that funds these free services, and even more rarely do I worry about how Google might use the information I have entrusted to it.
When I do think about these matters, the question of what would happen should something evil befall Google becomes unavoidable. What if the company's leadership loses sight of its non-evil policies (indeed, some people argue it already has). What if the company were to be bought? Unlikely as these scenarios might be, that is a lot of one's online presence to be invested in a single place.
Because of this, there's a part of me that hopes Buzz succeeds but not totally, but does so through complementing existing services instead of replacing them. This is the same part of me that would be hesitant to by a Google OS'ed PC, despite Microsoft's own set of issues. Will I use Buzz? Well, I'll certainly try it. I might even end up deciding that it is an amazing service. But if I do, it will be with the hope that Google remains a benevolent giant and shuns any lurking evils.
DAR is an instructional designer and general enthusiast who presently lives in Charlotte, NC.
6 hours ago