Seems that Google is about to take over the world!
It's funny. When we get sick of the status quo and the puffed-up arguments between two apposing parties, we desire another force to jump in and save the day. The strange thing is, when the new party takes power, we immediately wish there was a way to tame the new beast.
Our capitalist system always moves towards monopoly, though most of us wish it to stay a open market for competition. We have enacted laws against monopolies, so the big busineses have used another strategy for market control: Divide and Conquer!
Look at some examples:
- USA and USSR
- Coke and Pepsi
- Republican and Democrat
- Microsoft and Mac
The strategy is to have large, apposing parties constantly battling, making every person have to chose one side or the other?
Look at the Cold War situation: USA and USSR. They used competition to dominate the world, forcing every other country to pick sides, thereby removing all forms of competition. While we thought there was a real war going on, It was just a friendly game of competition!
I know this is just my opinion. But I believe that Modern Monopolies are disguises for business agreement between two (seemingly) apposing parties, using deceptive marketing to conquer and divide the market, thereby removing all other competition.
One of the modern economic monopolies that went under the radar for years is the Cola Wars of Coco-cola and Pepsi. Until then, it was unethical and illegal to mention another brand's name your television coommercial. But, when the Cola Wars started, Coke and Pepsi made it a habit to constantly compare their two products. The result? We were so caught up fighting over which one was best that all the other cola products dissapeared from the shelves!
Then we have out Two Party System. Seems great. But, I feel safe to say that, under all the arguments, both parties are really following the same plan. Republicans Borrow and Spend to get us into wars that benefit special business interests without any observable possitive result for the rest of the population. Then the Democrats swoop in to Tax us for the National Debt and Spend the rest on Social Programs that make us feel better.
It's just "Good Cop Bad Cop" to me. Or perhaps like a parent with Split Personalities. What do you think?
The latest economic Modern Monopoly is run my Mac and Microsoft for their Operating System control over our laptops and desktops. Yes, there are others (phew!). But, the media hype is all about these two. They have been at it for years.
But, under the OS radar, Google spreads its tentacles...
Based on the perceived standard that computers should be based on software and files stored locally, the typical OS conciders the Internet as a separate entity entirely. Great fun to look at web pages. A great way to gather information, yes. But as a place to store files and run software for basic desktop needs? No way!
So, then comes Google, poising itself to take over one of the spots of competition by making a new operating system that puts the web first, before saved documents and computer-housed software...
"The operating system is a reversal of traditional computing, where the Internet browser is a subset of what the computer does. With the Google system, the Internet comes first, and the stuff we do on computers happens to be there too.
"'We believe the Web platform is a much better way,' said Google co-founder Sergei Brin."
Many people already utilize the web for these tasks, from storing bookmarks and contact lists, to using open-source Google Docs. And most of us are used to software that is stored locally (like Typepad for instance). So, it makes sense that Google would make an Operation System that utilizes this new trend.
If you haven't figures out the why yet, realize that the amount of space and memory saved by focussing the total energy of a computer on the internet, without having to store and read massive files, is huge.
Sundar Pichai, vice president of product management at Google, says "Instead of managing software, you are managing data. As a model of computing it is very, very different."
Also, it opens the way for running a whole computer from Flash Memory (like an SD card), rather than from a hard drive, which still uses moving parts and is susceptible to magnetization. I am sure you have realized the speed it takes a computer to read your SD card is much faster than a CD Rom, right?
"One result is that the Chrome-based computer can go from "off" to actively "on" in under 10 seconds."
Other than the time it will take to make online software like Google Docs as intricate as and less buggy than Word, Security is the most pressing issue to me. They claim that their "centrally managed" system will be more secure.
"...with encrypted signatures between every step--security in this system is arguably stronger, because all information away from the OS and browser are centrally managed and updated."
Wait a minute! Did I just get a vision from I-Robot? "Centrally Managed" sounds a little too much like a massive AI brain organizing all my contacts and documents! I am sure the government is already able to access my computer, how much more when all my software is running online?
Whatever. It is the world we are living in. And Google seems to be poising itself at the top of the world. Anybody want to compete?
(Quotes from Forbes.Com's article Google Aims To Remake Computers.)
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