Wednesday, October 3, 2007

We is done foolz...

Group Google Prospectus

Since the creation of the movement of information via the World Wide Web the ability to find it has been among one of the most important add-ons to making information available. In recent years many companies have undertaken the charge of compiling and creating what we now call search engines. These figurative locomotives were used solely to bring information from point “A” to point “B”, nothing more and nothing less. With the recent push to corner the market many of these search engines began to offer much more than just a way to harvest information. One such search engine which has now cornered the market is Google. Since its conception, Google has worked continuously to offer every imaginable service to people so that they have no need to go anywhere else. Are these monopolistic practices or just trying to make things easier? In order to answer these questions, we will be looking into the following aspects of Google:

Theme #1: History
We want to research the origin of Google, ranging from how it came about to its original purpose. Also, we want to create a timeline of events of Google’s history to see its progression over time and how time has affected its power.

Theme #2: Google Labs
As part of our research, we want to become familiar with the Google labs feature like what the purpose of using it is and then assess its contribution to Google’s overall success.

Theme #3: Conspiracy Theories
There are a lot of people who are concerned with the amount of information knows about its users. We want to research the different conspiracy theories out there, including those that are profound and just plausible ones. The theories that we want to further look into are Daniel Brandt, The Ghost in the Machine, Minority Report Ad Invasion, Government informant, Big Brother, and Double Click.

Theme #4: Alternatives/Competitors
When looking at Google’s dominating presence in the world today, it’s interesting to think about what people used before using Google and how those competitors are holding up today. What currently separates Google from its competitors is its far reach into industries and markets that expand beyond Google's original purpose as a search engine, so is there really any hope for its competitors?

The Power Google has and will maintain comes solely from the consumer. This being the case, Google needs to a) continue to appeal to the human population or b) the human population needs to find an alternative to Google. The power aspect will tie all the themes together in order to decipher whether or not Google is truly evil or awesome.

Project Schedule
10/2/07: Email or Blog Initial Research by 5pm
10/10/07: Research on History, Google Labs, Conspiracy Theories, Microsoft, and Alternatives needs to be completed. Email to Manager and Marc.
10/17/07: Google Power Aspect Needs to be Emailed (All research/analysis should be completed at this time). Begin putting it together
10/24/07: PROJECT NEEDS TO BE COMPLETED
We’re giving each person a week to do his or her part so that the person who needs their work can have a week to get his or her work done. Our presentation date is October 29th!

Individual Roles/Responsibilities

Jesse: Google History
Amanda: Google Labs, Conspiracy Theories
Trevor: Google following Microsoft's Footsteps as a Monopoly
Brandon: Alternatives/Competitors
Marc: Power -- Analyzing the aspects above and putting it all together.
Michael: Creative Lead
Neha: Project Manager

1 comment:

Jesse Pegg said...

This is great! Good job guys!