This will be more of a slightly incoherent rant than a scholarly debate… just a warning. I’m plum tired of seeing posts on respectable message boards, search results, books and even videos on Google and its usage. Google, my friends, does NOT rule the internet, contrary to apparent popular belief. Google is merely a search engine with a few added bonuses over other search engines. While it does have nice functions, we must remember that it hasn’t truly added anything to the internet except easier access to sites that were already there.
I first realised that the Google craze was getting out of control when I found that Merriam-Webster had added the term “google” to the dictionary AS A VERB! Example:
Zach: Hey Bob, I can’t seem to find a good website on transplanting the Ukrainian blue-hoofed yak spleens into humans.
Bob: Well, Zach, have you tried googling it?
For the love of all things good and holy, when will it all end?! Now, the story has come up about Googlebombing, which is where people will purposely link to certain sites, and throughout their site containing the link, they will place descriptors of their choice. For instance, creating a site that says “failure” repeatedly and linking it to the whitehouse.gov page on George W. Bush. The result should be fairly simple to understand, but here’s a link to Google’s search results for the term string miserable failure.
While I personally find this particular case amusing, the results and uproar have shown up in several prominent publications, including the BBC. I have wondered, with this much publicity from such a minor political slant is it possible that Google adminstators themselves were active in the Googlebombing? Is it all just a marketing ploy?
Google used to be a rather nice resource for searching the web, but nowadays there’s GMail, Froogle, and even Google’s own personal blog. I guess the idea of a “light-weight” search engine is out.
My prediction: google usage will slow down and their own success will turn against them. Either that, or it will continue to sweep through the internet like the vicious “Black Death” of centuries past.
