I know that the effect of
Google.com on society and it's size have already been covered, but when I was stumbling on
Stumbleupon.com earlier today, I came across some information that I feel has to be posted about on this blog.
Click here to see some statistics that will blow your mind. Well, they blew mine at least. Although I knew how Google has conquered the internet, as it is everyone's go-to website and that one website alone gives access to everything available on the world wide web, whether it be articles, pictures, videos, maps, mail, or anything else you can think of- but after looking at these statistics, my jaw dropped and eyes widened anyway. I mean, did you know that Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page have an annual salary of 1 billion dollars each? I sure didn't. How about the fact that Google's operating income is equal to the GDP of the Cayman Islands, Greenland, Dominica, Maldives, Mongolia, and Barbados combined? That a lot of money- over 8 billion dollars! If that doesn't surprise you, does the fact that if you wanted to display all of Google's indexed sites on one monitor, the screen would have to be 6 million miles from corner to corner- roughly 241 times the length of the equator? Anyway, the reason for posting this, besides the fact that this is all intriguing, is to show just how much Google has on it's servers. Just how much it does. Just how much people use it. Just how much it has impacted our society. Just look at the website (and where you get all the pictures you ever search for from) and the statistics if you don't believe it!
photo from: http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://cdn.erictric.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/how-massive-google-infographic-thumb.jpg&imgrefurl=http://erictric.com/2010/10/04/infographic-how-large-is-googles-operation/&usg=__rWOwAQht7oJuPKQe_Vbl5W99To4=&h=214&w=600&sz=43&hl=en&start=0&sig2=FvGzVGUkJqP_18qpcwB3qA&zoom=1&tbnid=ofTCdVhfoM-aEM:&tbnh=57&tbnw=160&ei=W36jTcu9B8nV0QHohpn1Dw&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmassive%2Bgoogle%26hl%3Den%26biw%3D1049%26bih%3D684%26gbv%3D2%26tbm%3Disch&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=232&vpy=115&dur=1343&hovh=134&hovw=376&tx=186&ty=91&oei=W36jTcu9B8nV0QHohpn1Dw&page=1&ndsp=23&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0
Sophie,
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with you, some of the statistics about Google are absolutely unbelievable. First, I thought it was amazing that Google started with 25 million pages in 2000, and now in 2010 they have over 40 billion. Not only is the jump in size amazing, but the fact that despite this huge increase in Google's index, the search time has only gotten faster, going from 3 seconds to around .1! Another amazing fact about Google's search speed, is that it would take a person 38,206 years to look at every Google page, while it takes Google no more than .5 seconds! I could sit here all day and comment on these amazing facts, but I think the point here is that we need to understand that even though Google is very helpful, it is also very powerful. I think that as Google expands, we need to be more cautious about how we use it and how much power we allow it to have. The reason I say this, is because if Google's systems began to falter, it would have a disastrous impact on society, because we rely too heavily on its services.
I actually find this extremely funny. Conceptually the idea of Google is so simple, there at the most simple level a middle-man. Literally Google is a dealer, a dealer of websites that is. You ask for something and for a price they get it for you, but instead of money you pay by watching advertisements and instead of an object they get you information. In basic terms Google is the most legal, effective, and genius idea the world has ever seen and the fact is that they literally dominate the market they are in. Google is a powerhouse, and for this reason, never underestimate them.
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