Google power is a worry?

Google can break a business with a mere algorithm change to its search engine. It can help reduce the success of any online business it seeks to buy. It has millions of profiles, and tracks the movements of us all and yet I have not seen one challenge to the companies growth.

Google’s growth has resulted in it controlling over one hundred services (listed below) and there seems to be no stopping the power of this impressive organisation and we all should be worried!

About Google

Google was founded in 1997 by two Stanford University PhD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin whose initial company mission statement was

“To organize the world’s information and make it universally”

My belief is that Google is a runaway train that is moving far away from the original ethos and has so much power even politicians are scared to question why. When Google reaches the goal of complete domination we will become very vulnerable , competition has always given consumers the right to choose lack of it will be a disaster.

Does Google hate competition?

Have you noticed Google’s very strong competitive ethos where it identifies any successful business and then either buys it or develops a hybrid version. Groupon did not play ball in negotiations and Google attempt to buy them out failed. The response from Google shows how determined the company is to stifle competition. Google set up Google Offers, which is set to take a large part of Groupons business away from them.

Read: Why Groupon Should Regret Google Offers

Is Google running a Monopoly?

Comparison shopping engine Nextag and its CEO Jeffrey Katz have been at the forefront of accusing Google of being a monopoly and abusing its position to crush smaller competitors.

Facebook and Google

Google’s new social network, Google + is a clear attempt to challenge Facebook’s dominance. Google must be very uncomfortable looking at the success of Facebook and now even more worried with its fresh investment. Google Plus circles is now duplicating many relatiionships established on Facebook.

YouTube and Google
YouTube launched in February 2005,  it has grown quickly into one of the most popular websites on the Internet. Google bought YouTube for $1.65bn (£883m) in shares its CEO Eric Schmidt said, “This is the next step in the evolution of the Internet. Google video did not generate a good response from the public and failed to take market share from Youtube at that time.

Drop Box and Google Drive
Google Drive presents as a folder in Windows and on the Mac and allows cloud storage and sharing. This is a clear competitor to Drop Box who has dominated the cloud storage space for the last few years.

Linkedin and Google

With millions of business users and real profiles Linkedin must be a very attractive proposition to Google, it will be no surprise if the giant tries to take on Linkedin. I believe this purchase will be the step that politicians will start to realise that the Google may be going too far.

Google Search Results Hurt Business

Millions of small and medium sized businesses that rely heavily on search engine traffic have been victims to numerous changes to Google search results . These changes can simply make or break a business who have to adapt to any changes that Google imposes. Read How Google Killed Keyword Linking

CNBC reports. The search giant makes regular changes to its search technology to try to deliver more high-quality results. The April 2012 update, dubbed “Penguin,” was aimed at avoiding “over-optimized websites that were stuffed with keywords in an attempt to improve their search rankings,” The ones that are really feeling the change are the small businesses as they are the ones who invested on SEO to try and beat big business but now they are being penalized.

Do Governments like Google?

The data that Google holds is more than most governments hold on its own citizens and this data is growing with with every minor adjustments to its privacy terms and conditions. The authorities can have access to this data in many countries under certain circumstances.

Do consumers really have a choice?

The fact is without Google the Internet would be a harder place to navigate and most of us simply agree to Google’s privacy terms as we have little choice.  Google will say you can go to Bing or Yahoo to conduct searches or use other businesses instead of Google.  Even if the authorities to establish that Google is a monopoly, it would be hard for anyone to prove that the company’s free services have injured consumers.

Is Google Going too far?

Here is a list of over one hundred Google services, I think these will be out of date pretty soon with the companies desire for extreme growth

1. Google Search & it’s features – Google search is the most popular search engine on the Web.
2. Android – Android is a software stack for mobile devices that includes an operating system, middleware and key applications.
3. Blogger – A free blog publishing tool for easily sharing your thoughts with the world.
4. Dartr – Dart is a brand new programming language developed by Google.
5. FeedBurner – Allows bloggers and podcasters to manage their RSS feeds.
6. Google Account Activity – Get a monthly summary of your account activity across many Google products.
7. Google Ad Planner – A free media planning tool that can help you identify websites your audience is likely to visit so you can make better-informed advertising decisions.
8. Google AdSense – Place contextual Google ads on your site – and earn money.
9. Google AdWords – Advertise online and pay only when people click on your ad.
10. Google Affiliate Network (DoubleClick) – Full-service online marketing company specializing in pay-for-performance media.
11. Google Alerts – Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.
12. Google Analytics (Urchin) – Google Analytics makes it easy to improve your results online.
13. Google Apps – Software-as-a-service for business email, information sharing and security.
14. Google App Engine – Run your web applications on Google’s infrastructure.
15. Google Base – Google Base is a place where you can easily submit all types of online and offline content.
16. Google Blog Search – Blog Search is Google search technology focused on blogs.
17. Google Body (Now, Zygote Body) – Google Body is a detailed 3D model of the human body.
18. Google Bookmarks – Google Bookmarks is an online service that lets you save your favourite sites and attach labels and comments.
19. Google Book Search – Search and preview millions of books from libraries and publishers worldwide.
20. Google Browser Size – Simple visual tool to show what percentage of web users can see different areas of a website without needing to scroll.
21. Google Buzz – Start conversations about the things you find interesting. Share updates, photos, videos and more with your friends.
22. Google Calendar – Keep track of all your life’s important events – birthdays, reunions, little league games, doctor’s appointments – all in one place.
23. Google Checkout – Buy from stores across the web and track all your orders and shipping in one place.
24. Google Chrome – A browser that combines a minimal design with sophisticated technology to make the web faster, safer, and easier.
25. Google Chrome Sync – It’s a Google Tool that Sync your Google Chrome bookmarks across multiple computers.
26. Google Chromium – The Chromium projects include Chromium and Chromium OS, the open-source projects behind the Google Chrome browser and Google Chrome OS, respectively.
27. Google Code – Code is for external developers interested in Google related development.
28. Google Contacts – Similar to an online address book, the Contact Manager gives you easy access to the people you want to reach.
29. Google Custom Search Engine & Google Subscribed Links – With Google Custom Search Engine and Subscribed Links, you can create a search engine tailored to your needs and lets you create custom search results that users can add to their Google search pages.
30. Google Dashboard – Google Dashboard offers a simple view into the data associated with your Google Account.
31. Google Desktop – Search your computer as easily as you search the web with Google.
32. Google Developers – To inspire developers everywhere.
33. Google Dictionary – Free online dictionary.
34. Google Directory – The web organized by topic into categories.
35. Google Documents – Free web-based word processor and spreadsheet, which allow you share and collaborate online.
36. Google Drive [NEW] – Get 5 GB of Cloud Storage for Free.
37. Google Earth & Google Mars – Offers maps and satellite images for complex or pinpointed regional searches.
38. Google Fast Flip – Read news fast.
39. Google Finance – Offers a broad range of information about stocks, mutual funds, and companies.
40. Google Fusion Tables – Gather, visualize and share your data online.
41. Google Friend Connect – Instantly awakens and strengthens the community that visits your site by enriching it with social features.
42. Google Gears – A Firefox and Internet Explorer extension that allows to navigate on compatible websites offline and synchronize when going back online.
43. Google Go – Go is an expressive, concurrent, garbage-collected programming language.
44. Google Grants – In-kind advertising for non-profit organizations.
45. Google Groups – Where groups of people have discussions about common interests.
46. Google Health – Puts you in charge of your health information.
47. Google Image Search & Similar Images – The most comprehensive image search on the web. Google Search Images allows you to search for images using pictures rather than words.
48. Google In Quotes – Allows you to find quotes from stories linked to from Google News.
49. Google Knol – Knol makes it free and easy to create, collaborate on, and publish credible web content.
50. Google Latitude – See where your friends are on a map.
51. Google Local Business Center – If you are a business owner Claim your business listing today and let customers find you online!
52. Google Mail (Gmail) – Gmail is a new kind of webmail, built on the idea that email can be more intuitive, efficient, and useful.
53. Google Maps & Google Map Maker – Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions. With Map Maker you can edit the map in more than a hundred countries and watch your edits go into Google Maps.
54. Google Mars – Provides a visible imagery view, like Google Moon, as well as infrared imagery and shaded relief (elevation) of the planet Mars.
55. Google Mobile – Upgrade your phone with free Google products.
56. Google Moderator – A tool that allows distributed communities to submit and vote on questions for talks, presentations and events.
57. Google Moon – See the Moon in 3D.
58. Google Music – Upload your personal music collection and access it instantly on the web or any compatible device without the hassle of wires or syncing.
59. Google News, News Archive Search & Google News Timeline – Aggregated headlines and a search engine of many of the world’s news sources. News archive search provides an easy way to search and explore historical archives. News Timeline is a web application that organizes information chronologically.
60. Google Notebook (SearchWiki) – With Google Notebook, you can browse, clip, and organize information from across the web in a single online location that’s accessible from any computer.
61. Google Offers – Get amazing deals at the best places to eat, shop, and play.
62. Google Pack – Google Pack is a collection of software tools offered by Google to download in a single archive.
63. Google Page Speed – Page Speed Online analyzes the content of a web page, then generates suggestions to make that page faster.
64. Google Patents – Search the full text of the U.S. patent corpus and find patents that interest you.
65. Google Plus – Google+ aims to make sharing on the web more like sharing in real life.
66. Google Postini – Google email security and archiving services, powered by Postini, make your existing email system more secure and compliant.
67. Google PowerMeter – Save Energy. Save Money. Make a Difference.
68. Google Product Search (Froogle) – Presents photographs of products and links to the stores that sell them online.
69. Google Profiles – Decide what the world sees when it searches for you. Display the information you care about and make it easy for visitors to get to know you.
70. Google Reader – Web based feed reader to keep up with blogs and news.
71. Google Related – Google Related is a Chrome Extension that shows you useful, interesting content while you browse the web.
72. Google Scholar – Provides a search of scholarly literature across many disciplines and sources, including theses, books, abstracts and articles.
73. Google Scribe – Google Scribe helps you write better documents.
74. Google Script Converter – Convert text or a webpage.
75. Google Sets – Automatically create sets of items from a few examples.
76. Google Sites – Google Sites is a free and easy way to create and share web pages.
77. Google SketchUp – Create, modify and share 3D models.
78. Google Sky – Google Sky includes a number of different ways to explore the universe.
79. Google Squared – Takes a category and creates a starter ‘square‘ of information, automatically fetching and organizing facts from across the web.
80. Google Street View – Explore the world at street level.
81. Google Store – Official Google Accessories, Apparel Items, Software, Office Equipment.
82. Google Subscribed Links – Subscribed Links let you create custom search results that users can add to their Google search pages.
83. Google Suggest – As you type your search, Google offers keyword suggestions in real time.
84. Google Sync – Synchronize your mail, calendar and contacts.
85. Google Takeout – Google Takeout allows you to download a copy of your data stored within Google products.
86. Google Talk – Chat with family and friends over the Internet for free.
87. Google Tasks – Keep track of what you need to do. Your task list stays up to date no matter how you access it. It’s a simple list that’s with you everywhere you go.
88. Google Toolbar – Internet Explorer and Firefox Toolbar with Google search.
89. Google Transit – Plan a trip using public transportation.
90. Google Transliteration – Google Transliteration allows you to type phonetically using Roman characters.
91. Google Translate – Free online language translation service instantly translates text and web pages.
92. Google Trends & Google Insights for Search – Compare the world’s interest in your favorite topics. Use Google Insights for Search and see for yourself what the world is searching for.
93. Google TV – Google TV is a new experience that combines TV, the entire web, and apps — as well as a way to search across them all. Take a tour, learn how it works, and find out how to get it.
94. Google URL Shortener – Google URL Shortener at goo.gl is used by Google products to create short URLs that can be easily shared, tweeted, or emailed to friends.
95. Google Ventures – Venture Capital – by Google.
96. Google Video – Search and watch millions of videos indexed from all over the web.
97. Google Voice – Google Voice gives you one number for all your phones, voicemail as easy as email, free US long distance, low rates on international calls, and more.
98. Google Wallet – Save time and money by shopping with Google Wallet — a smart, virtual walletthat stores your payment cards, offers, and more on your phone and online.
99. Google Wave – Google Wave is a new online communication and collaboration tool.
100. Google Web Accelerator – Google Web Accelerator works with your browser to help web pages show up in a snap.
101. Google Web Elements – Google Web Elements allow you to easily add your favorite Google products to your website.
102. Google Web Fonts – Get hundreds of free, open-source fonts optimized for the web (hosted on Google Server).
103. Google Web History – Your web history is stored on Google servers, which means that you can view and manage it from any computer.
104. Google Webmaster Tools – Provides you with detailed reports about your pages’ visibility on Google.
105. Google Website Optimizer – Website Optimizer, Google’s free website testing and optimization tool, allows you to increase the value of your existing websites and traffic without spending a cent.
106. Google WiFi – Google WiFi is a free wireless Internet service that Google is offering to the city of Mountain View.
107. iGoogle – Your personalized Google home page.
108. Jaiku – Create your own microblog and connect with your friends.
109. Orkut – Social networking site designed to make your social life more active and stimulating.
110. Picasa – Helps you organize, edit, and share your photos.
111. reCAPTCHA – A captcha system that uses successful decodings to helps digitise books for online use.
112. Textcube – Korean blogging platform.
113. YouTube – Share your videos with friends, family, and the world.

Are you worried?

Author Nick Marr