One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men;

No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man.

To mark the company's 15th anniversary, here are 15 ways

Google has changed the world.
1) Search
Lets start with the obvious: Google's first product is so
ubiquitous it is now a verb synonymous with looking up
information online. The search engine is by many accounts
the single most-visited page on the Internet. Google indexes
much of the world's online information, putting any desired
public knowledge just a few keystrokes away.
2) Google bombing
One of the best pranks on the Web, a Google bomb is the
practice of pushing erroneous, untrue, or satirical search
results to the top of Google's rankings through a series of
search-engine optimization tricks.
For several years, the top search result for former Republican
presidential hopeful Rick Santorum used his last name to
describe a by-product of man-on-man sexof which
Santorum disapprovesgiving amateur pundits a startling
different view of the politician.
3) YouTube
While Google didn't create YouTube, it bought the videosharing site less than 18 months after its public debut in
2005 and has powered its meteoric rise. Now, YouTube has

been localized in 56 countries and more than 100 hours of

video are uploaded to the site every minute.
4) Google Docs
Using Google Docs, people collaborate on text documents,
spreadsheets, and slideshows, wherever they may be. Its a
surprisingly malleable tool thats been used in classrooms,
newsrooms, and to help people find a place to stay after
the Boston Marathon bombings earlier this year. Occupy
Wall Street organizers collaborated with each
other using docs, as did Arab Spring protestors.
5) Google Person Finder
As useful as Docs is in emergencies, Google's Person
Finder tool is perhaps more effective in tracking down
missing people in a disaster. The company launched the tool
following the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
6) Hangouts
Weve only scratched the surface for Google+s live videoconferencing tool. Its free, easily accessible, and has even
been embraced by the president. Notably, musician Daria
Musk used Hangouts to boost her career by playing concerts
for fans online in July 2011.
7) Google Maps
Most people cant find their way across the street anymore
without Google Maps. By rolling in traffic data and local
public transport information, its become an absolute
necessity, further bolstered by the Street View tool, which
captures locations in real life through car-mounted cameras.

(Its also captured some awkward moments, like couples in

the middle of sex acts or breakups.) Perhaps more
significantly, one man found his way back home 23 years after
he was abducted, because he found two bridges
he remembered from childhood on Maps.
8) Google Earth
Like a souped-up version of Maps, Google Earth lets you zoom
into almost any location on the planet, including
the secretive Area 51 facility, for a closer look via satellite.
It too has changed lives, as in the case of the lost boy
who found his mother in India a quarter-century after he
disappeared.
9) Android
Google's smartphone operating system could have earned the
firm billions had it not released the code for free.
Instead, people in developing nations have access to
smartphone devices that would be too expensive otherwise,
connecting them to the rest of the world, despite lacking
traditional computers.
10) Google News
Google News indexes up-to-the-minute reports from all over
the world. Trust me; its an invaluable tool for keeping track of
a story as it develops. Google News, along with RSS, changed
the way we consume news and learn what's going on.
11) Transparency
Plug certain keywords into Google Search and you may find
yourself on a government watchlist. Through a National

Security Agency program known as XKeyscore, spies can

reportedly track Internet activity in real time, so what
you're moogling might, in a heartbeat, tell authorities more
about yourself than you'd otherwise wish to reveal. That said,
through its regular Transparency Reports, Google has set the
standard for releasing information pertaining to
governmental requests for information.
12) A shared memory
Theres a potential downside to having public information
instantly searchable on Google: The Internet never forgets,
and all it takes is one Google search to be reminded of a
mistake youd like to control-alt-delete.
13) Self-driving cars
Looking to the future, Google has a number of new projects
that could impact the world for decades to come. One is the
driverless car, in which computers direct vehicles to where
they need to go. A project video from March 2012 showed how
the cars could help visually impaired persons get around.
14) Google Glass
Ostensibly a pair of frames beaming a screen just in front of
your eyes, Google is pitching Glass as a hands-free way of
using the Internet in any situation. It may change the world
and how we connect with each other, but for now it's perhaps
most compelling to outsiders for giving a first-person look at
interesting situations,
from arrests and proposals to surgeries and porn shoots.
15) Project Loon

None of these projects would be possible without the Internet.

There are still vast regions of the world in which it is
impossible to grab an affordable data signal, much less hook a
laptop up to a wireless connection. Google's planning to
change that with Project Loon. The name is somewhat apt
since, on the surface, it's a loopy idea: using balloons to get
people online. It's a strategy, Google says, that will get people
online cheaper and faster than traditional cable-based
connections laid in the ground.

The 'Google effect:' may be good,

may be bad

DR. T. RAMA PRASAD

Brains with extraordinary memory are becoming ordinary with the advent
of the Internet (Net)! It seems the human cortex is undergoing an
evolutionary change by remapping the neural circuitry and re-organising
the way we remember things. In the earlier decades, we used to remember
lots of information, necessarily, as we didn't have search engines like
Google and databases such as Amazon.com, IMDb.com, etc., which serve as
external memory where information is stored collectively outside ourselves.
The focus now is on remembering only the access to information on the Net
rather than the contents, thus saving ourselves a lot of brain power' for
doing something other than the mundane activity of rote memorising.
Recent studies indicate that people are getting more and more primed to
click on a computer rather than engaging in interpersonal intellectual
communication with colleagues or friends. They are getting more cocooned.
The balance that the Net has brought is making people think, read and
memorise differently which some refer to as Google effect. Some aver that
the easy availability of information on the Net is leading to intellectual
laziness,' making them less memory-oriented' on certain aspects. The
studies have revealed a declining trend in memorising textual information,
which, anyway, is just a click away.
Thus the Net is playing the part of external or trans-active memory stored
outside our bodies, relegating the brains to act as index pages. But we may
use the spare capacity of the brain for a myriad other purposes. And it is
neither necessary nor possible to memorise detailed texts of information
pertaining even to the narrow field of specialisation of an individual. It
would be profitable to utilise the memory power for something more
creative and innovative. Moreover, we have developed a tendency to forage
the Web's info-thickets, reading, scanning highlights and blog-spots,
zooming on videos and listening to podcasts and jumping from link to link
to hyperlink, and zipping along the Net surface on a Jet Ski which robs us of
some memory reserve and time. And these days, we have to skim through
the vast amount of information to keep ourselves updated on multiple
fronts.
With all this, who has the time to savour Romeo and Juliet and War and
Peace? We just shouldn't blame the Internet or Google for its side-effects.
The advantages are too many to condemn them. It is just a need-based
evolution, and we should be prudent to have, in our limited human

memory, a balanced and need-based information tempered with wisdom

which is the ultimate asset.
There is a sea change brought about by the Internet effect, if it may be
called so. Researchers, led by psychologist Betsy Sparrow of Columbia
University, have studied this paradigm shift in memory, called the Google
effect, and indicated that people have a poor recall of knowledge from their
memory if they knew where that knowledge could easily be found on the
Internet, but at the same time they are more adept at remembering
information on how to get access to it on the Net through links, hyperlinks,
etc. Internet search engines are making people lose their memory,' as
information could easily be retrieved from the Internet.
In the olden days, people used to gather information from friends and coworkers or classmates. Now, with this Google effect,' people are
increasingly bypassing discussions with friends and colleagues. They are
becoming more dependent on computers and getting isolated with
decreasing personal dialogues. The trend is not to memorise data which are
readily accessible on the Net but to utilise the blank brain for something
more worthwhile.
This phenomenon is replacing a person's circle of friends with the Internet.
People are relying more on their computers as a form of external memory'
as online information libraries wired' human brains. Some say that this
state of being so wired' may have deleterious effects on society over the
coming decades. Any novelty is met with suspicion, derision and resistance.
While there is always a tendency to glorify a new tool, there is also a
counter-tendency to decry it. Did not Socrates, in Plato's Phaedrus, bemoan
the development of writing, fearing that it would make people forgetful due
to a lack of exercise to memorise? When the Gutenberg's printing press
arrived in the 15th century, did not the Italian humanist, Hieronimo
Squarciafico, express concern that print material would weaken the minds
through intellectual laziness?
However, now, ironically, people have come to be dependent more on
computers and to rely more on the Internet than human beings even
doctors for treatment. In this context, I cite the case of Kumar it is his
pseudonym. He came to me for cough and fever of two months' duration. I
examined him thoroughly and did a few basic investigations. I concluded
that he was suffering from pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) and prescribed

medicines. He looked askance when I pronounced that the problem was TB,
perhaps thinking that I made a rash diagnosis.
He returned after a week and said that he had not started taking the
medicines. I found that Kumar learnt' a lot about tuberculosis by browsing
on the Net during the previous week. Diagnosis of TB was not acceptable to
him. He said he read about more tests for TB and wished that those tests be
done. He got them done Tuberculin Test, IgG, IgA, IgM, sputum studies,
PCR, CT scan, etc. Some of them came out to be negative for TB which
further confounded him.
I tried to convince him saying that recently (2011) the World Health
Organisation recommended against going by blood tests based on antibody
response for diagnosing active TB and that these expensive tests are
intensively promoted by vested interests. It didn't cut ice with him. He said
he wanted to wait for the results of culture and sensitivity tests as he
gathered information on the Google about the disastrous' side-effects
caused by the drugs and the dangers of drug resistance! And he asked me
about taking the medicine Imitanib (Gleevec) which has just (2011) been
suggested to be used in TB. While this tech-savvy patient knows a lot about
this drug, most of the doctors never even heard of it! He let the precious
time pass by, thanks to the Net for the overload of information.
Consequently, due to delay in commencing treatment, Kumar had a bout of
haemoptysis (coughing out of blood) and landed in an Intensive Care Unit,
fighting for life. This is another kind of Internet (Google) effect!
Teacher: Show me the homework done yesterday.
Student: Sir, I uploaded it on Facebook and tagged you!
(The writer is a pulmonologist at the Pay what you can' Clinic,
Perundurai, Erode district, Tamil
Nadu. drtramaprasad@gmail.com)
Keywords: Google

It's been a decade since Google went public. Here are 10

ways the company has transformed the marketand
our lives since.
Back in 2004, investors werent entirely sure what to make of Google, and
skeptics abounded. Fast-forward to today, when we can look back at how far the company
has come, in ways that inspire both awe and concern. Below are 10 examples of its influence.
1. It has changed our language. Despite Microsofts best efforts, theres a reason Bing
never caught on as a verb, let alone as a beleaguered anthropomorphic meme. The phrase
to Google is so popular that the company is actually worriedabout losing trademark rights
if the term becomes generic, like escalator and zipper, which were once trademarked.
2. It has changed our brains. Recent research has confirmed suspicions that 24/7
access to (near) limitless information is not only bad for human discourseits also making
us worse at remembering things, regardless of whether we try. And even if we arent
conscious of it, our brains are primed to think about the Internet as soon as we start trying
to recall the answer to a tough trivia question. Essentially, Google has become our collective
mental crutch.
3. It set the stage for Facebook and Twitters sky-high valuations.Yes, lofty
valuations based on mere speculation were also common back in the dot-com fervor of the
90s, says Ed Crotty, chief investment officer for Davidson Investment Advisors. But Google
broke new ground by proving that even just the potential for a huge audience could pay off
in a big way.
In the early days, when people were thinking in terms of web portals, the barriers to entry
didnt seem high for search, Crotty says. That meant Googles competitive advantage wasnt
clear. But the tipping point was when Google was able to scale up their audience enough to
attract ad agencies, and then further improve their algorithms, since those get better with
scale. Thats partly why you see tech companies now willing to forgo profits for a period of
time in order to build an audience. And also why investors are willing to throw money their
way.

4. It has taken over our cell phones. Since the first Android phone was sold in 2008,
Googles mobile operating system has bulldozed the competition. Today it claims nearly
85% of market share, nearly doubling its hold over the last three years. Next stop, selfdriving cars?
5. It has transformed the way we use e-mail. Gmail was invented a decade ago, before
bottomless inboxes were a sine qua non. Its hard even to remember those dark ages when
storage space was sacredand deleting emails was as tedious-but-necessary as flossing.
Today our accounts serve as mausoleums, housing long-forgotten files, links, and even
wholerelationships. Google itself has touted alternative uses for Gmail, such as setting up a
virtual time capsule for your newbornthough in practice accounts cant be owned by
anyone under 13. But even that last point is about to change.
6. Its changed how we collaborate. Back in 2006, Google acquired the company
behind an online word processor named Writely. With that bet, Google created a world
where its taken for granted that people can collaborate on virtually any type of document,
whether for work, play, or (literally) revolution.
7. It has allowed us to travel the globe from our desks. Yes,MapQuest was popular
first. But Google Maps (and Earth) has become much more than a tool for measuring travel
routes and times. Since Google Street View came onto the scene in 2007, its been possible
to visit distant destinations, give friends a virtual tour of your hometown, plan ahead of
trips, and waste even more time on the Internet. Of course, the more popular a tool, the
more useful it is to those whod like to spy on us.
8. It has influenced the news we read. Ranking high in Google search results is serious
business and can have a profound effect on the success of companies, media outlets, and
even politicians. When I just Googled how SEO affects journalism, this link was at the top
of my search results. How is that significant? Well, for one, that story itself has been so
successfully search engine optimized that it still tops the list despite being four years old.
But most importantly, many of the concerns raised in the piece have not gone awaysuch as
the pressure to file some pithy blog post about the hot topic of the moment at the expense
of covering stories that would be prioritized based on traditional measures
of newsworthiness. What that means for you, the reader: more headlines like this and this.
9. It has turned users into commodities. We all love free stuff, but its easy to forget
that services offered by companies like Google and Facebook arent truly free, as data
expert Bruce Schneier has pointed out.Remember that all of your data (across ALL of the

services you use, and that includes Calendar, Maps, and so on) is a valuable good that
Google ispackaging and selling to its real customersadvertisers.
10. Its changed how everyone else sees YOU. Unlike your Facebook profile, the links
that turn up when potential employers (or love interests) Google you can be nearimpossible to erase. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Google uses the fear of embarrassing search
results to encourage people to manage their image through Google+ profiles.