It's a nightmare to imagine even a day without Google. We like it or not, Google is almost a synonym for the Internet. Over a period of time, Google has launched several applications and tools enough for our needs. Anything we want to do on the web can be performed by Google tools. It has given us a set of services without which we can't imagine our everyday life, the smart search engine, online email service, social network, internet messaging, blogging platform, photos gallery, cloud space, video streaming platform, website creator, Internet browser, online spreadsheet, notes, document processor, and even an operating system. The PPC advertising system and cloud platform are the biggest sources of revenue.
Google maps are the only navigation system we think of whenever we look for routes. Google Analytics is the most trusted tool for analyzing and improving website performance.
You must have skipped a few of the tools written above. And these are only 10% of the services, there are hundreds more. You can see by this how big google is a part of our daily works.
In today's world, it's tough to think about living in a world without Google.
Google has risen as a daily necessity in our day to day life in very much less time. It has imposed its influence over our work, as religion influences our cultural living. Its products have become generic like we use the term "google" to search for anything on the web.
Most people can't use a PC or smartphone without using any Google application or tool. None of us know all the directions and routes, we use google maps even to travel within our cities.
The user of Google Reader has known the pain of vanishing of a Google product. Google removed its application google reader, it might not have a big following but still had its share of users. People started a petition on change.org to bring back a not so famous product and it was taken seriously.
So we can imagine what will happen when the Big G will leave our life. However, I'm sure we'll find the alternatives.
But the real question is: Do we want to leave Google and go for any other platform?
Let's just think, one night at midnight, google just disappeared in the air, no Google Drive, no more google applications, no google scholar. No more Analytics or Adword to help in business purposes, or to develop marketing strategies. It would feel like an important part of the livelihood is missing.
Yes, it is possible to live in a world without Google. But it would probably be like using the Internet without the best search engine, best browser, and the worst part is there will be no android.
Without Google Maps, Docs, Gmail, YouTube, chrome, analytics, adword, blogger, Google news, google forms, drive, Google pay, google meet, google, google, google!
Google went down for half an hour on 14th Dec, 2020 and everyone was reckless. The traffic on Facebook, instagram and twitter increased dramatically with people talking about “Google is Down''. The playstore, gmail, calendar, google maps, youtube and many more went down at the sametime. It was like clock stops for the whole world on the internet. The worst part, Gmail was down and in the meantime, many works were delayed just because no gmail user was able to receive or send mails. This shows a very small tiny picture of what will happen if google just vanishes out in air.
It seems almost impossible to work without google. It isn't. For every service that Google provides, there is an alternate application for that service, or it is waiting to be discovered.For example, we use google meet for video meetings or interviews. If we want not to use Google then we have the alternative to use Zoom or Microsoft Teams. So it's not about what Google provides, it's about what choice we make. It depends on, do we want to stop using google and start afresh. Are we ready to give up all these services, and one day start afresh without google?
Some alternatives of Google Services:
●Bing, DuckDuckGo or any other search engine can be the alternative for Google Search
●Firefox in place of Chrome
●Outlook, yahoo mail and others will take place of Gmail
●The replacement of YouTube is tough, but not impossible. People can use paid video streaming platforms like Netflix, Prime, etc.
●Microsoft office Words, zoho docs, etc. can replace Google docs
●Bing Maps for Google Maps
●Wordpress for Blogger.com
●Dropbox for Google Drive
●Instagram, twitter and other social media platforms has already taken place of Google+
●Firefox OS may take place of Android
●Motamo or Woopra can be used for web analytics
The above list proclaims that even without google we’ll be surrounded with the same services just by some other company. It surely will not be the same, because all of the listed services are provided by sole one company Google, but each of the alternatives are from different firms.
Google has a lot of perks, no doubt, but it has its drawbacks also. They are able to provide us so many features customized for each and every person, because they use our data and personal information to set the algorithm. Google Algorithm is very versatile and accurate which makes it a dynamic service provider for all our internet needs.
There is a famous saying in this digital world “Google knows Everything”. But let's just hold for a second and think, isn’t it scary that somebody or something knows about us more than we know. There is no privacy of anything we do in our life. Every query we make, every word we search, every bit we see on the internet or even on our pc or mobile devices, Google records everything.
Have you ever noticed, you are sitting with your friends and just randomly plan a trip or just talked to go on a trip for 1 or 2 minutes and the next time you check your phone, it starts showing ads related to trips mentioning offers/discounts or posts on your social media accounts as sponsored tags. It seems fascinating and does help in making a decision but at the same time isn’t it scary. You didn’t ask for the information, you didn’t make any search related to it, yet google knows what you’re thinking of. Even if it helps us and minimizes our work but in one way or another it is invading our Privacy.
So back to the real question: Can we imagine the internet without Google?
Yes, If there was no google, we may have discovered some other way or any other search engine to distribute the information. What is more harder to think is to imagine a world without all of these technologies around.
