What Exactly Is GOOGLE?

I bet everyone who owns a computer has utilized Google's search engine at least once before.

If you think google is just one of the many search engines we go to for information scouting, you are certainly wrong. Google's search engine is just the threshold of many unfolding conveniences, and information.

Google is an example of Web 2.0 which allows web-based communication, also allowing users to change information on the internet. It is "a company which does not focus on producing software such as a browser but instead focuses on providing a service based on data. The data here, of course, are the links Web page authors make between sites. Google exploits this user-generated content to offer Web search based on reputation through its "Page Rank" algorithm. Unlike software, which undergoes scheduled releases, a service such as Google is constantly updated, a process called "the perpetual beta"." From this, we know that Google is not just a platform for receiving information, but instead, for sharing.

One article struck me lately from The Straits Times. It is an article entitled "Google Republic versus the People's Republic" which was published on January 23 2010. As we all know, google is currently at "war" with the Chinese government as China is issuing a ban on Google in the country. This is detrimental for Google only because it has diminished Google's "global ambitions".

What captured my attention was not just the fact that there is a discord going on between the two "republics", but the fact that Google is seen to be a "republic", and powerful enough to stand alone as a "country" astonished me. "Through just a blog post on Jan 12, the superbrand grabbed international headlines and cast the emerging superpower as the representative of all that is bad about humanity"(China). Google being such a powerful agent, now, has the ability and the cheek in fact, to deem the Republic of China as a "villian", who is against "freedom and openess".

Upon reflection and some analysis, it is just remarkable to see how Google and China are seen as "on par" in power. We cannot look at Google as "just another search engine" anymore, but instead, Google is now an "interest state" that allows people to live in it, and create a social identity with it.

This has certainly allowed me to understand the great power of the internet that is now a monumental tool in not only some of us, but everyone in the world. Whether the war between both "republics" will result in a win-win, lose-lose or win-lose situation, this battle of two superpowers certainly will influence the global village we live in.