The Power of Google

Which to be honest, I’ve never put a ton of thought into until lately. Some people are scared thinking Google’s taking over, they have too much power and they know way too much about people. I do agree with that last statement… hello GoogleEarth, is this really necessary? To get so close you can make out cars and see figures of people. A bit of an intrusion of privacy, don’t you think? Also, a security risk Federal Government, let’s do something about this, like block Canada on the map.

I also prided myself on using Yahoo as my primary search engine as opposed to Google. I liked to say “I Yahooooo” (extending the ‘o’ makes it much more fun to say) instead of being like everyone else and using powerhouse Google. I learned though in the last 6 months, Google is seriously better and provides better results. Still, it’s not my go to, it’s my back up.

But what kind of minds do they have working there? Maybe some people don’t think this is a big deal but I do. Due to the chaos that is happening in Egypt, the government or police has blocked Facebook and Twitter as protesters were using them to organize and co-ordinate protests. So they were shut down, leaving protesters to scramble and wing it a bit. It’s not as easy to send a text to thousands upon thousands of people, especially if you don’t have their numbers.

So the powers to be at Google developed a technology that allows Egyptians to post messages to Twitter through voicemail. I don’t know how difficult this would be to create, I assume it would be somewhat tricky especially with communications getting shut down left and right. Not to mention that the protesting began January 25 and they can up with this in a few short days. You can get the full deets by clicking HERE.

I don’t know if I’m overly astounded by this, maybe I am, maybe not. But I don’t see Yahoo creating this. But Yahoo is definitely no Google. They have genius’ working there rolling in the big dough, getting offered mad shares of the company so they don’t leave and go to Facebook Inc. Back off Zuckerberg. Anyway to say the least I’m impressed.

Read up about what’s happening in Egypt, it makes for an interesting read and makes you thankful to be living in a country as great as Canada. We may not always have the fastest health care, a majority government and concrete culture. But we do have universal health care, recognize marriage for all and born and breed two of the best hockey greats, Wayne Gretzky and Sidney Crosby. Eat your heart out US and be proud to be Canadian for the reasons I’ve list and many more.

Till tomorrow.