Get ready - this is one of my "rantier" posts.
With our on line lives becoming completely enmeshed and intertwined with our real lives, you can BET that Google will have--if they aren't already--a big part of the whole 'end times/last days' scenario, as far as technology on the web. Have you seen this (growing) list?
http://www.google.com/about/products/While we love the ease and features of Google, their ubiquitous nature is downright creepy. Personally, I have an Android phone (Galaxy Note II), and while generally I love it, it's run and operated by none other than Google. When I first signed into my slick new phone I immediately had to sign into Google in order to get "all the great features" that Google insists we must have.
I also have a Google+ account that I opened awhile back because I grew tired of another "seems to be everywhere" web ruler, Facebook, and what they were doing to--and with--their customers' information. So I was rather surprised when, after several months, I logged into Google+ and saw that the photos I had taken with my Android phone had all been automatically uploaded to my Google+ account! Eek. Nothing naughty, mind you, but I was very perturbed, so immediately I checked the privacy settings to be sure that they weren't "out there for all to see" (they weren't). Still...it's a little too much. At least for me.
I'm at the age where I'm kind of on the "cusp"of technology: I work with it, I know about it to some degree, I can understand it to a degree, I "get it"...to a point. I'm not like my parents genteration who are downright fearful of technology (rightfully so it would seem) and always think they're going to break something when using computers; and I'm not like the generation behind me who have literally grown up with a mouse in their hands (remember the joke about getting a 10 year old to fix the flashing "12:00" on your VCR?). Being in this middle ground makes me very cognizent of the EFFECTS that technology is having on our virtual lives, and how it AFFECTS us IRL in general (that's "in real life" -- a little web code for you).
On a whim I did a search (ironically, using Google--they're nothing if not good at what they do) for "how to get Google out of your on line life." I got a couple of interesting results that I've shared below. If you happen to read this Blog, and are also concerned about your on line life and Big Google, be sure to check out these websites for tips on how to "de-google-ize" yourself. After all, as one of these links mentions:
"When Google began organizing the web, you were a more than a decade younger. Your youthful indiscretions may have faded into your memory but Google doesn't forget."http://www.leavegooglebehind.com/ <== very good site with lots of great info
http://safeandsavvy.f-secure.com/2010/08/16/get-google-out-of-your-life/
http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Un-Google_Yourself <== by
Wired, one of the first modern tech mags ever
