Yes. Google is already omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent -- the way the Almighty is defined. With the launch of Google Plus, it looks like Google went a step further and added an omni of its own -- 'omniawesome'. Still not convinced? We give you reasons to prove that the first word the world learnt in Internet kindergarten is, in fact, God
Yes. Google is already omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent -- the way the Almighty is defined. With the launch of Google Plus, it looks like Google went a step further and added an omni of its ownu00a0 -- 'omniawesome'. Still not convinced? We give you reasons to prove that the first word the world learnt in Internet kindergarten is, in fact, God
This could well be a deep philosophical discussion about the existence of being, free will, metaphysics and teleology. But we'll keep it simple. Google, we firmly believe, has all the makings of divine presence in the cyber space, not only because it believes all netizens are born equal, but also because it believes all netizens have the right to know and be all that they are, or can be. Google is constantly inventing new ways to make this happen, and while not all of it may make sense, you know what they say about God and his mysterious ways, don't you?
Illustration/ Satish Acharya
Because Google gets you: Google Plus
As if having to keep up with 'friends' and think up cool status updates for Twitter, Facebook, and Orkut (if you're still on it, that is) while in the shower wasn't enough, Google Plus brings with it yet another set of pressures. What we like, though, is how Plus transplants the way you create social spheres in your life, into actuality. Dragging and dropping people into circles feels far more intuitive than creating lists with long names, a la Facebook. Plus, the clean uncluttered interface, minus the games and advertisements (oh, joy!) and the option to mute annoying conversations is a total winner. It remains to be seen how Plus tackles privacy issues that have hounded its biggest competitor, Facebook, and we'd also love to see overlapping Venn diagrams to depict how social circles intersect with each other in life.
Because Google lets you live online: Google Chromebook
Face it -- you sit down to work on that Microsoft Word document, but end up spending most of your time online, adding to and editing a Google Docs piece, all the while doing some meaningless Internet surfing, before mailing the document back to your self. Google gets how our lives exist more and more, in the cloud, and that's why the Chromebook makes sense. Built to let you access your material that's stored securely in cyberspace, the Chromebook syncs everything with your Gmail, calendar appointments and settings -- that's it, you're good to go. Best part? You can install apps from the Chrome Webs Store and restore data stored in the cloud on another machine if you ever lose your laptop. Now if only Google would throw in an Internet connection for free.
Because Google honours you: Google Earth Heroes
Recently Google India launched 'The Web Is What You Make of It' campaign that premiered last month with a video called Letters from Dad that was inspired by a collection of stories about parents taking advantage of technology to capture and document the lives of their children. While the idea behind the campaign is to show how people are using the power of the web to do amazing things (like, in the case of Archana's Kitchen, the second video on a cooking blog received a fan following and a book deal), not many have heard of Google's other, older project, Google Heroes. Conceptualised as a vlog, a video blog, Google Earth Heroes documents people who use Google Earth to address issues of ecological significance. Individuals and not-for-profit organisations upload photographs of a particular place on Google Maps, and feed in information about what's going on there. On Google Earth, all a user needs to do is zoom into any region on earth to find out about the stellar work being done by common men and women to save our planet. Our favourite? The Save the Elephants campaign in Africa.
Because Google takes you to picasso: Google Art Project
Even for someone who really wouldn't know his Monet from his Van Gogh, this initiative recently rolled out by Google is breathtaking, not only in terms of the ease of technology but also in terms of what it spells out for the future of the Internet. The Art Project takes you on a virtual tour of art galleries in the United States and Europe -- at present only 17 have signed up for this path-breaking venture, including greats like MOMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Smithsonian in Washington DC, Tate museum in London and the Van Gogh Museum of Amsterdam. Here, you are taken through the corridors of the galleries, and can view the paintings and sculptures up close by zooming in to see details like the dots of the impressionists and the lines of the modernists. We only hope that other art galleries see the sense of Google's vision, and make 'offline' spaces as open and inviting as 'online' spaces already are.
Even God gets it wrong sometimes
You got a sense of what Google was trying to do with Wave and Buzz: Make sharing easy and seamless; start conversations between people and keep it purposeful; and even bring families scattered across the globe together over one network. We tried and it worked, almost. The thing with Wave, and later Buzz (which was modelled along the same lines except it resembled Google chat with a lot of people pitching in on the conversation, who weren't part of your chat group) was that it just seemed too much to handle. The notifications began piling, we got called in to random conversations that we may not have wanted to be part of and somewhere, this lack of choice seemed too much to take. Free will Google, free will.
God wants you to have fun
Why else would Google create the most enjoyable doodles of all time -- the Les Paul doodle, and the Pac Man doodle? The Les Paul doodle, in honour of the original electric guitar pioneer's 96th birthday, let you create your composition by moving your mouse over guitar strings. Google even let you record your tune and then play it back. The Pac Man doodle, created to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the much-loved game had the honour of contributing to 4.8 hours of time wasted on the Internet on the day it appeared, across the globe (according to a study by RescueTime). But we wouldn't worry too much about that -- happy employees make for better work, right?
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