Google? Changes EVERYTHING?

From the article "Real-World Case: GOOGLE IS CHANGING EVERYTHING",
the most agreed term is that "probably no other company has impacted our work and life as much as Google has".
At least this is aligned with what I thought.

It is true that Google is primarily known for its search engine and its advertising tools. However, there are still a lot of people get to be impressed for Google’s informal corporate culture. Google has been placed at the top of the Fortune Magazine's list of hundred best places to work in 2007 and 2008.

Even though Google is well-known for its advertising tools, it also encountered problem for unable to counteraction against the click fraud[1] which is a kind of internet crime.


The Google Spreadsheet, a Web-based application, is quite similar to Excel, just that it is Google branded and webified.
However, it provides no multi-column sorts, clipboard limitation, limited menus, inability to highlight multiple non-consecutive cells, missing Paste Special and others[2].
Some users even think that using Excel is much easier than using Google Spreadsheet.



Today, Google Spreadsheet has been integrated with Writely word processing application into a single control panel and administrative area and it is known as Google Docs & Spreadsheet.
The Google Docs & Spreadsheet shares quite similar functions as Google Spreadsheet.
However, Google Docs & Spreadsheet enables the users to import and export the data to a wider range of file formats (DOC, XLS, ODT, ODS, HTML, PDF, and others).
With the function that can be shared and edited simultaneously by others outside the organisations which cannot be done by Excel, it is obvious that Google is stealing away the computing share from Microsoft day by day.
But the requirement to log in with Google account sometimes becomes an annoyance to the users.


Being an extension of Google’s existing content collection efforts (traditional web crawl system, Google Sitemaps, Google Print and Google Video), Google Base enhanced the searchableness of the information from different content owners via Google.
Its goal is to improve the overall quality and extent of Google Search results.
Like what the author of this article said, it helps users feature relevant information on Google’s main search index, its Froogle shopping comparison tool and Google Local search.


BearingPoint’s ease and speed of integration, extended search reach, security and access control and sales, service and support enable Google to bring powerful but simple search solutions to complex enterprise environments.





The products provided by Google can be ranged from desktop products to hardware products[3].
Inside this range, the web products which are advertising, search, mapping and others are the most impressive for the users.
With these products, we can find out that Google is trying its best to bring an easy life to the users.
And, these products do change many things around us.
In arriving to this stage, Google also faced some criticism in terms of intellectual property, internet privacy, censorship and other issues[4].
Nonetheless, it is undeniable that Google is changing everything.


References:

100 Best Companies to Work For 2007

Announcing Google Base

Featured Partners- BearingPoint