Are we giving too much away to Google?

Written by Simon Bennison

Thursday, 07 May 2009 10:36

For some it’s an opportunity to have more control over your own image on Google, for others it’s simply another way for Google to have more control over you and your online presence.

Last month, Google set up Google Profile to “give you greater control over what people find when they search for your name”. The tool allows web users to set up an online biography, upload a photo, include links to other social network profiles, and tell people about your location. This is nothing new: MySpace, Facebook, Bebo et al. have been providing this platform for years, but none of them have the control that Google has over the Internet, none have close to the same number of users, and importantly none of them have the diversity of products that Google has. Wired Magazine thinks you should “be afraid”.

For many, the main concern is that Google are developing more and more tools that have the capacity to build complex profiles of all of us. Similar reservations have been voiced many times before: when Gmail introduced advertising that targeted keywords in your emails; when iGoogle gave you the opportunity to unite all of your information sources in one homepage; and when Street View introduced unparalleled interactive maps of our cities.

As a digital marketer, I rely on Google for so much of what I do. From Analytics, to AdWords and organic search listings, I utilise the power of Google every day to enhance our clients’ presence on the web. We provide search engine marketing and social media optimisation to help our clients maintain control over their online image.

Perhaps the key point is that you have control. You don’t have to fill your profile with everything about yourself, you can be selective. You can create the image that you want the world to see.

Ten years ago, when Microsoft was omnipotent, how many people outside of the software industry predicted that their success wouldn’t last? How many predicted the arrival of a Google, or Open Source Software?

If people don’t want to use the Google Profile they won’t, and if it starts to look like Google are monopolising the way people interact with the Internet, people will begin to look elsewhere. I just wonder when and if this will happen. Who’s out there to take on the mantle and shake things up again?

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