odrakir.com

Google Dependency

·

Odrakir

I’m a big Google fan. I use Gmail, Gtalk, Picasa, Google Earth / Maps… the works, but as a user, using all this “free” Google software, made me think about the companies and developers who base their work and products on Google platforms like Google Maps and Adsense. These companies and developers are not just a few, actually it’s a growing group each passing day. Tags like “geo” / “map” / “planet” are beginning to crowd the names of applications and websites, all them depending on Google Maps. When surfing the web, the majority of blogs present us with Google Ads, and the so called “pro-blogers” depend ultimately on web site ads, being most of them from Google. Millions of users have a Gmail account and use it as their main email account, I’m one of them and I’ve been deprived of my Gmail account once so I can say it’s not a nice experience.

My question is: what if something bad happens to Google? Or, let’s not be so drastic and more realistic, what if Google starts to charge money for their products? Would Google Maps be so famous and so broadly used if it was a paid product? Would Gmail had so many users even offering 2Gb of mail storage if it was paid? I guess not.

Google dependency is one of the effects of the Web 2.0, a very dangerous dependency not because of Google as a company, but because of the amount of people depending on one single entity.

[tags]Google, Google Dependency, Web 2.0[/tags]

Comments

4 responses to “Google Dependency”

  1. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    I don’t agree with that supposed Web 2.0 side-effect, like you say. When there was no Web 2.0 (even if its actual existence is real or not) lots of people depended (and still do) on Hotmail accounts, which is way more dangerous looking at Microsoft’s history (it was them who sold “improved” Hotmail “experience”)… On another note, i doubt Google will decide to charge for the services they provide, they would just risk loosing the momentum they’ve been gaining for years now.

  2. Odrakir Avatar
    Odrakir

    Hotmail is as much as a liability as Gmail, but it’s only one “product” and no indepent companies are developing entire sites based on it. I agree with you when you say that Google won’t change for it’s services but there’s always that risk as well as other risks that might affect thousands of websites and apps.

  3. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    Dependency on a single entity is potentially dangerous, i admit that, but i rather depend on Google with it’s proven Open Source and user friendlyness than any other company (especially not Microsoft). As for the independent companies developing upon Google’s services, it’s their own responsability to keep to the official API or else they won’t have much to argue about. On the other end, it’s Google’s responsability to keep things going smoothly, but i think they have the experience and network redundancy to do just that. 😉

  4. S . DINESH Avatar
    S . DINESH

    Google has a lot of options.search is the best ,gmail is also too good etc….

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.