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Everyone hates the US but what would you do without our tech?

Technolgy helps to cure cancer -but it also drove the Nazi concentration camps and continues to powers the bombs that enable politicians and businessmen to kill innocent civilians around the world.

How can any intelligent person confuse "technology" with "entertainment" -and how can anybody with a concience write such commercially inspired trivia?

wow, sounds impressive - shame other corporations don't follow suit :(

I used google first around 2000 and I fell in love with this search engine. I used to tell all of my friends to use this. I am so happy to see them The BEST.

With an environment like that, it's no wonder that the best and the brightest try to make Google their employer.

As a young software engineer, one could only ever hope to work for such a company.

Sounds unique, and with such an approach to work, it is no wonder that google has achieved so much.

At the very least Google gave us the search engine which is my home page. Microsoft gave us an operating system where spell check doesn't work with wordpad or notepad. How sad!
Microsoft is not compatible generation after generation unless you convert to text files.

I use a very old Thinkpad 286 for hobbies but the other day I took my Acer running xp and lunix. While at the community center I tried to
connect to wi-fi and to my amazement it worked. It has change the world for me. Not quite everything everywhere but very close. Instead of doing my weights, I read my favourite newspapers online.

Most school textbooks are outdate and have been for years probably due to budgets. Wi-fi changes all that. Many structures breakdown during a world war and whether we have one over energy is yet to be seen. Iran is certainly probably going to be next - Korea? Chinese
military buildup. Very interesting times. What will a world war do to the internet?

How about dropping into the office that deals with Googles growth in China? Ask them how they can be working with the Chinese government to limit the Chinese people's freedom of information and expression and still have their company motto as "Don't be evil".

Google is perhaps one of the best examples of simplicity being best.

Compare Microsoft's "MSN" home-page to that of Google's.

MSN goes for the all in one, maximum content - whereas Google gives the user exactly what they want. A search engine.

It reminds me of that movie Anti-trust with Ryan Phillipe (or whatever his name is).... Google sounds just like that company in that movie!

In relation to Andy's point on China.

A company is bound by the rules set by the government. They must follow those rules.If you want to make a complaint, make it to China.

Going along your view I shouldn't buy any products that are manufactured in China or transported by China.

Has anyone ever extrapolated Google's growth to see when they become the dominant world power?

Great, we have a search engine that retrieves slighly more relevant results than yahoo and msn. Don't be fooled, Google has done little more than glamorise yellow pages.

I'm a PC technician by trade with Microsoft qualifications.
I was pointed at Google in 1996 in my first post-graduate job. It was very much then as it is now, an easy-to-use search engine. It's rapid expansion into video, mail and so on seems to be working for the moment. I just hope it doesn't all collapse in some horrific way, crippling many businesses and home users in the fallout.
Still, long live Google. If only all technology companies operated that way.

I appreciate Google is the worlds most widely used search engine and their seemingly flawless work ethic but everything seems all to pleasantville. Although Google allows employees 20% of their time to work on personal projects, I assume they take a hefty cut of the profit from any employee's money making ideas worked on during that 20%. I can't imagine all is so rosy over at Google HQ

Poster 13, Paul - I direct you to:

Google is the fastest, most comprehensive website on the internet.

You clearly have little insight into how Google actually "works" - perhaps if you did you'd be slower to refer to what is possibly the single largest internet-related achievement to date as a "glamorized yellow pages".

I must have missed the search function at the front of the book, silly me. I'm curious, does it search over hundreds of millions of webpages and provide links to over 2 billion images?

I love google and hope to work for them some day! They're the idea of a "fun" company.

In response to Blind (ahem)...

The thing about complaining directly to China is that they really don't listen to anyone.

Google, on the other hand are quite precious about their lovely fluffy image and so the more people who question their dealing with China, the more pressure they'll be under to push the Chinese and for less restrictions on the internet. It might also make them think twice before signing up to restrictions imposed by other governments with questionable human rights standards. All business (especially one whose motto is 'don't be evil') has a responsibility to uphold basic human rights.

So for goodness sakes complain to them - they will be listening!!

On Chinese products... The Google.cn search engine affects Chinese users by restricting search results for topics such as β€œhuman rights”, β€œpolitical reform”, β€œTiananmen Square” and β€œFalun Gong”, among others. If my made-in-Chine egg timer did that, I wouldn't buy it.

I have to disagree with you Paul. Have you not taken a look at the Google labs? Google is more than a search engine now, it is an emailing client, a spreadsheet manager, a word processor, desktop addons, route planner.... the list goes on. I suggest you create a google account and check it out!

I fail to see the reason behind all the hype they seem to receive. The search engine was there before Google. Yes they have an improved algorythm that allows for more relevant results, yet search is still in its infancy. If you do a like for like comparison of inovations brought to the market with the likes of Microsoft, Apple and IBM, Google has a long way to go.

I have to agree with Paul. Alot of people, such as Joseph, clearly get totally overtaken by the power of brand. Let me guess, Mars are amazing and so are Starbucks and so are McDonalds. Get real, Google is a strong brand not a product that is much better than its competitors.

Does the spinning plasma globe show 'real time' searches from China for 'Tiananmen Square massacre'?

I think not! Googles colaboration with the Chinese Government for internet censorship is a disgrace!

It sounds a really exciting place to work

I also have reservations about universal WiF, and would like to know how many people round there have become ill or just had to move out after it was installed. In the RAF, it's recognised that some people can't fly some aircraft because the electronic "noise" specific to that machine clashes with their physiology and (somehow) makes them unwell.

You said: "Everyone hates the US but what would you do without our tech?"

May I remind you that it was NOT an American that devised the world wide web.

Roland, Paul

I am far from "totally overtaken by the power of brand".

In fact I'm in many ways against capitalism but that's a different discussion entirely.

My point is Paul implies that Google "aint that good" when in actual fact (in reality) there isn't anything remotely as good in terms of diversity, structure, simplicity and design.

Its worth checking out searchmash - google's test site for future search techno. Surprisingly good

Its worth checking out searchmash - google's test site for future search techno. Surprisingly good

Woow very impressive, talk about ideal working condtions!

Ive heard from a person working in Micrsoft in the UK that they have taken steps to insure good working condtions. A few features in the microsoft campus UK are Starbucks coffee and other restaurants in their own campus giving free food to employees. There are doctors dotted around the campus for any people who might have 'cramps' or worse from using the computers for too long.

Technology is big, and people are starting to realize that.

its true that Google does a good job at searching, BUT, I understand that it does much more... it keeps a record of your search and the address of the machine you use, the results, and what you looked at and where you went to etc. etc. So you want to use the Google online free programmes or even pay for the privilege with ad free pages? The data you create with this virtual office will certainly never be 'lost', along with every message and attachment that you send or receive in Gmail. That is a very large profile you can create which will always be totally secure on servers in their commercial environment, part owned by China ;-}

To poster 19 and others enamoured with Google's great work ethic, hyper-cool offices and whatever else it is they contrive to be young and funky and clever, they are a corporate entity with one goal - to make money, increase market share and power.

Once you sign up for an account they have all your information, all your likes, dislikes, all your searches, all your emails. Governments and companies would kill for this information. Yet Google does it by stealth.

"Don't be evil"?!. Just by pretending to be that naive is misleading and dishonest.

Google is powerful. Power corrupts. By all means use them just see the bigger picture - don't be a sucker for great marketing.

I love how everyone is so cynical about the world. Maybe for once we should admit that a big company is doing well?

To poster 1. I don't hate the US. I believe that US has been and will always continue to be at the forefront of newest and best technologies that the world has yet to see. Google is just the beginning...

To poster number one. Americans do not invent most technology, most technology is invented in Europe or Japan, the US is just good at making it commercial with the help of American taxes to make foreign companies uncompetitive with these American firms. An English guy created the iPod, Apples American marketing techniques sold it.

I use Google as my primary search engine and as my homepage simply because it is quick to load up and it doesn't bombard me with advertisements like say MSN or Yahoo, ironically Google makes 80% of its revenue from advertising by advertising specific things that the user searches for in a discrete way. Everytime a user clicks on an ad then Google generates revenue.

Google does has a lot of services, however, most of them are still in beta, plus a lot of their services aren't fully integrated yet like say a Yahoo ID which can be used across all of Yahoo's services. Unless these services come out of beta and fully integrated soon then I think Google will start losing customers.

On the Google campus...I don't know why more companies don't try and work like this, especially in a fast changing project based environment.

At the very least Google gave us the search engine which is my home page. Microsoft gave us an operating system where spell check doesn't work with wordpad or notepad. How sad!
Microsoft is not compatible generation after generation unless you convert to text files.

I use a very old Thinkpad 286 for hobbies but the other day I took my Acer running xp and lunix. While at the community center I tried to
connect to wi-fi and to my amazement it worked. It has change the world for me. Not quite everything everywhere but very close. Instead of doing my weights, I read my favourite newspapers online.

Most school textbooks are outdate and have been for years probably due to budgets. Wi-fi changes all that. Many structures breakdown during a world war and whether we have one over energy is yet to be seen. Iran is certainly probably going to be next - Korea? Chinese
military buildup. Very interesting times. What will a world war do to the internet?

Actually I find that my Google searches are increasingly becoming clogged with irrelevant results, and increasingly ones that require me to spend money before I can access them to verify their relevance.

Google is nothing more than a glorified yellow pages and all the other stuff they do is beyond irrelevant. Its amazing how people buy into brands.

Lets not forget that the internet and computer were both of british invention, and that Google is a great tool for those technologies.

I Wish I am a Googler. I read and heard a lot about the culture and the importance that is been given to the ideas of employees.

I wonder, is it the money that Google is making that allows them to be a wonderful employer? or is it they way Google wants to treat.

Google is one amazing business where apparently something like 20% employees are millonaires. Worked out well for a friend of mine-Lucky bugger!

Trevor Batten, I have to disagree [post 2].

Technology only enables dreams and visions to be realised. Dreams are personal, whether they are good or bad is dependent on the individual.

Technology can be entertaining, your are right it can also kill. But not all technology is for bad...

I find it amazing that the anti-capitalist lot should try to portray Google, a company that goes out of its way to 'do no evil', as a 'disgraceful' company. Check out Google.org to see how they are helping charities etc with over a billion dollars of their money. I wonder how many of their lot have done as much good as this?

Sorry to burst the bubble of British pride, but the internet was not a British invention. It's a direct descendant of DARPANet, which was developed to provide an alternative communications infrastructure for the US military in the event of a Soviet nuclear strike.

You can make that "made in Britain" claim, however, for the world wide web, which exists because Sir Tim Berners-Lee combined hypertext to TCP and DNS to make what we use as the web today possible -- which was pretty impressive.

As for the relative strengths of Google, time will tell. I still get search results from them that are closest to what I am looking for, and I like their email and RSS service. Others may not, but that doesn't mean that Google's underlying algorithms and solution architecture aren't interesting.

Tim Berners Lee is British and credited with inventing the World Wide Web. The World Wide Web is a network of linked documents which runs over the Internet.

Technology does not have a national identity. I am an American who lives in San Francisco. People like Joe, poster no. 1, are irritating to me too. I am amazed by how many of them are posting to this blog. Like Massbay on the Google map entry.

Please just ignore them. They are probably angry about something.

You all laud Google but there is a very very dark side to it all.

Every time you do a search, they store it with your IP address and cookie forever. They basically have a list of every string you have ever put to search on Google.

Worse yet, they can now cross-map it with the e-mails using gmail and are able to know who your friends, families, colleagues etc are. Plus, google ads are everywhere and they can also map it to the web-pages you frequent.

I know Google search service, gmail etc is very nice but you are giving up 100% of your privacy using it.

I wonder when, and if, Google will create an operating system, or at least and OS app.

Though on the other hand, Google has made their fortune by precisely avoiding such big risky mammoth projets, and instead providing smaller, but better, services. All of which are, at least in part, add financed.

I think nobody hate USA,
Sometime we criticise their politic's man...

Google is a very useful tools, it has especially assisted us scholars in Nairobi Kenya to easily access western publications for theory triangulation.

Keep it up google!!