Googling Google: How It Started and How It Affected Society

Earth is a big place. Looking back just twenty-five years ago, Earth was so vast that even just communicating information to all four corners of the planet was inconvenient. Today though, with the creation of the Internet, Earth doesn’t seem as big it is; it’s the opposite. The Internet made Earth a smaller place, but more so, it made the reaches of information wider. This in great part is because of a search engine, a search engine that began in a garage as a collaboration of two students; this is great part is because of Google.

            Google’s story started in 1995 when its founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin met in Stanford. A year later, they started collaborating on a Standford-based search-engine named BackRub. Soon enough, with the encouragement of David Filo – founder of Yahoo! and fellow alum, and enough funds, they both established Google, Inc. and registered the domain Google.com; the name, inspired by the word “googol” - a mathematical term of number 1 followed by 100 zeros, reflected the pair’s vision, “to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.” (The History of Google and Our history in depth)

            Just a little over a decade later, Google has practically changed the world. Google’s search engine basically indexes the world’s information to our fingertips. And it’s not anymore just a search-engine. It can give you directions with Google Maps and Google Earth and it can help you with collaborative projects with Google Docs and Google+’s live video-conferencing tool. It has also changed lives. Google Docs was vital during Boston Marathon bombings, connecting those who were displaced to those who were offering a place to stay (Collier, 2013). Also, with Google Maps, a 30-year old man, lost for 15 years, found his way back home to his family (Collier, 2012). But Google has so much more in its arsenal. With their undergoing and future projects, including self-driving cars, Google Glass, and Project Loon, it has the potential to alter our reality more that it already has. (Holt, 2013)

            But despite all of this positivity, Google does have negative impacts on society. Because of having information so accessible by the public, Google has said to have devalued the new generation’s critical thinking skills because it focused more, perhaps too much, on objective information, on practical thinking (Islam, 2012). According to Dr. Tyger Latham, an American clinical psychologist, there is a studied phenomenon of the human mind called “Google effect”. Based on studies, they found that because of having easy access to facts, humans now often don’t remember the data itself but only where they found it, which is often online, in Google. (Latham, 2011)

            Google has thoroughly made an immense impact on society. It made the imparting of information easier, the world grow closer and the world’s wealth of information richer. It changed our world and our lives, our way of thinking and our perspectives. Today, Google’s positive influence may outweigh the negatives, but this just teaches us what we always have to keep in mind, for Google and the internet in general is shaping our minds and our future; and that is, to not stop thinking.

Audrey Anne A. Arocha

2012-51626

References:

Collier, Kevin, 2013. Boston residents offer victims shelter via Google doc. The Daily Dot. http://www.dailydot.com/society/boston-marathon-explosion-housing-google-doc/. March 6, 2014.

Collier, Kevin, 2012. How Google Earth reunited a family. The Daily Dot. http://www.dailydot.com/news/google-maps-saroo-brierley/. March 6, 2014.

Holt, Kris, 2013. 15 ways Google changed the world. The Daily Dot. http://www.dailydot.com/technology/google-15-anniversary-search-maps/. March 6, 2014.

Islam, Rashed, 2012. Impact on Society. The Foundation of Google. https://sites.google.com/site/jurgensencompositionprojectweb/resources/technology/. March 6, 2014.

Latham, Tyger, 2011. The Google Effect. Therapy Matters. Psychology Today. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/therapy-matters/201107/the-google-effect/. March 6, 2014.

Our history in depth. Google. https://www.google.com/about/company/history/. March 6, 2014.

The History of Google: From Garage-based Business to #1 Search Engine. Submit Today. http://www.submittoday.com/history_of_google.htm/. March 6, 2014.