Does Google Have Too Much Power???

[cheater]

Do you think google has too much power and influence on the web? They are the dominant search engine, provide ads for many sites, own the popular youtube, and have many other services. If you have a google account, google will constantly gather more and more info on you. They scan your gmail messages, log what searches you make and what results you click, they even pay attention to what images you search for. I bet if google wanted to, they could easily put together a small report on any individual that uses their services. Since they are becoming more popular each day, sooner or later, they will have info on everyone. Now, what would happen if google were to start handing out the info to 3rd party companies? Now, imagine if they were to go into a voip service. They could log your phone calls in a similar fashion without any government document. I think you catch my drift. Google is getting way too powerful. No single company should control so many aspects of the web.

[Jason]

I don't think they have too much power. They don't necessarily control the search engine you use, the e-mail you use, etc. There are other options that can easily be found. In fact, I think it was just ruled that they were not a monopoly by the government.

As for them obtaining too much information, I guess for me personally it just falls back onto if you don't like something that a company is doing, then you can use another service if there is an alternative.

[cheater]

I guess you are right. But in my opinion, google does what it does better than its competition. So if I were to switch to another service, I would be getting a lower quality service.

[Jason]

Yeah, I agree with that. A lot of services that good does provide are better than its competitors, so I guess if I switched, I would be using something inferior in my opinion. Many others see the competitors as actually better though, so in there few, that isn't the case.

[cheater]

Well, I guess it would have to do with what you need the service for. If you just need a way to send and receive email, it wouldn't matter what email service you used. But if you needed google's filters and searches, you might have a hard time switching.

[Robert]

The reason Google has as much power as they do is because they are very good at doing what they do.

It's only natural for the best in the field to have the most power and Google is becoming the best in everything thing they do online which gives them even more power.

I don't think they would ever do anything wrong with the information they have but if they did we all would be in big trouble.

[cheater]

In my mind, google is like the government of the internet. Right now, we all are free to do what we want. But in a few years, google might change their mind and become the dictator of the internet.

[macuser9214]

Originally Posted by cheater

In my mind, google is like the government of the internet. Right now, we all are free to do what we want. But in a few years, google might change their mind and become the dictator of the internet.

Nah. Not worried about that.. They don't have THAT much power. As stated avove, there ARE alternatives.

[Aravapalli]

in general no one can ply with there users if so then they are out of the market :-)

[LXscope]

Google does have a lot of power. That is true...

But do they have too much power? No.

I would vote the owners of Google for president any day.

There is no such thing as too much power unless the person in charge of that power can not be trusted. Google has not done anything wrong, yet, and I give them a lot of credit. They have made some huge deals (youtube, etc.) and have done nothing but good with there money.