SPIDERbytes

Google chrome is the new Google browser that is designed to be faster, sleeker and easier to use than, say, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.   Then, Google comes along and introduces a Chrome Operating System that is also light-weight and designed to be faster and more reliable than, say, Microsoft’s operating systems.

Microsoft continues to have dominance over the operating system and browser marketplace, though Mozilla Firefox and Apple have taken noticeable bites out of the total pie over the past several years.  In Microsoft’s early years, they were viewed as entrepreneurial and inspirational. They were freedom fighters, giving us tools to empower the individual. They were not seen as a capitalistic venture, rather they were seen as liberators to the world tethered to large main frames.    It wasn’t until they came close to achieving world dominance and near monopoly status that the world took notice of the potential harm having such ubiquitous presence in the marketplace could mean to the consumer.  Lack of competition, lack of innovation, stagnant services, and declining product improvements among others threatened to harm the market and our personal use of the products that have become a necessity in our world.  Not only that, but Microsoft began expanding into ever more information based services (storing of personal data, for example) that could threaten our personal sovereignty.

Doesn’t this all seem familiar? Is anyone concerned about Google.  Google is the world’s leading storer of personal information. They are not just a software and services company. Most argue that they are successful because they offer far superior products and services. They rule because people want to use their services, that in fact, they offer the kind of freedom from capitalist dominance that we were concerned with in the first place.

Google stands for freedom and that is why we are now bound to them.  Ironic, isn’t it?

I am not at all suggesting that Google has an evil plot to rule the world and eventually take away all our civil liberties. I am suggesting, however, that when one company’s products penetrate the market in such a dominant fashion as Google’s have that we, as a society, should be very concerned about the long term implications. It is because of the necessity of survival that innovation exists. If we are all complacent, innovation stops. As devoted to innovation as Google is, they are becoming so large and so prevalent that they will necessarily devote significant resources just to protecting their own position, rather than in ensuring our interests are protected.

God bless Google. But, let’s make sure there are more Google’s on the horizon to take its place.. soon.