Blog post #7

Google started gaining traction due to the order of results it gave during a search. The popular search engine at the time was Yahoo which ordered results based on times the search term was used on a page. Google used a ranking system where each page is ranked by a number of factors, this algorithm constantly changes even today. Early pioneers of Google have become extremely wealthy. The first investor of Google Andy Bechtolsheim invested 100,000 dollars in 1998 now his shares are worth 2.8 million dollars. 

Google is very much part of our daily lives, This morning I was woken up by a Google Home, I had to Google something in class, I checked my Google email and now writing this blog post on a Google-owned website. I've had a computer in the house for as long as I can remember, these computers had Google software has always been a part of my life. Whenever I have a question using Google is my first instinct. I can only wonder how people got information before the use of the internet. 

Off the top of my head, the only people who don't use Google are my grandparents who refuse to use modern technology. Other than that the only people who stereotypically don't use Google are Amish people, the elderly, people with privacy concerns, and people in extremely remote places without access to technology.  As high-speed internet is brought to more and more places Google will be adopted by those people.

With Google being so large there are many pros and cons to this

pros:

1. Google has provided 154,000 jobs to Americans.

2. Google helps millions of people every day with their products. Having so much data accessible to anyone with an internet connection has completely changed the way we get information.

cons:

1. it's a monopoly. Google has no real rivals when it comes to search engines, Although Duckduckgo and Bing are used by some Google having Drive and many other tools available in their browser makes others practically unused by the masses.  

2. With so much data in one company if any data breach occurs millions of users' personal data(banking info, passwords, emails, phone numbers, files) will be compromised.

3. Google is one of the largest companies in the world. estimated to be worth over 1.45 trillion dollars. One entity owning so much wealth is dangerous. They could buy out numerous politicians, lobby government actions, and track the data of government figures.