Google launched many features that deal with saving personal stuff, but the big picture in which all of them will be integrated is yet to be revealed.Search across computers (Google Desktop)
Index and search the documents and viewed web pages from across all your computers.
Save Google Gadget content and settings (Google Desktop)
Access gadget content and settings like To Do lists, Scratch Pad notes, favorite stocks, and more from any computer.
Google Browser Sync
Google Browser Sync for Firefox is an extension that continuously synchronizes your browser settings – including bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, and saved passwords – across your computers.
Search History
Search History lets you view and manage your history of past searches and the search results you've clicked on.
Gmail
Don't throw anything away. Over 2755.742333 megabytes (and counting) of free storage so you'll never need to delete another message.
Do you see a pattern here? Google wants to create a persistent memory for all your virtual belongings: your queries, your bookmarks, your history, and ultimately your files. When you leave a footprint on a computer, it should propagate to Google and become a persistent footprint, something you can retrieve from any other computer connected to the Internet. The computer is just a cache, a temporary place until the information becomes universally available. Wherever you go, you have your online history with you. All the pages you've visited, all the searches you've made, all the chat logs, all the documents.
Google wants to blur the distinction between your personal computer and the web. The first visible sign was when they integrated desktop search interface into Google.com. The second step is creating online tools that partially replace similar desktop applications (see Gmail, Calendar, Writely, Spreadsheets). The third step will be synchronizing the files between online and offline applications and solving the right access problem (what's public, private or restricted).
You can have more than one computer, and all the files will be synchronized. You can be at a public computer and still view and edit your files.
While GDrive is not yet here, its first signs are clearly visible. GDrive will have two components: a desktop client which will be Google Desktop and an online interface that will integrate most of Google's online replacement tools.
"With infinite storage, we can house all user files, including emails, web history, pictures, bookmarks, etc and make it accessible from anywhere (any device, any platform, etc)" was the prophecy and the first signs are already here. As in Dali's painting, the vague memories erased by time will be recreated and kept alive.
Related:
Mozy - Online backup
Box.net - Free online storage
Just the way it should be, non dependant on some quirky PC. Yet, when I try to spread the Google world amongst my friends they aren't interested. They soon want to know me when they have a PC problem and can't remember if they've saved there email address book or bookmarks etc.
ReplyDeleteKeep it coming Google.......
Trusting Google with all your data and your usage patterns is crazy.
ReplyDeleteSeems like several science fiction movies have been filmed on this premise. Once they possess everyone's information on their servers, what's to stop them from controlling your information in manners that fit them? Free email, and an amazing search engine: that's all google will ever be to me. No matter what happens. I can remain outside of Microsofts grip, so too Google's.
ReplyDeleteIn a world of AOL posting personal data, government acquisition od data without a warrant and the like, google censorship in China etc., the last thing any savvy computer user wants is "persistent memory." Caveat emptor.
ReplyDeleteIs Google really coming out with an operating system ? I have been hearing about it but there is no official word on it yet.
ReplyDeleteI would really like to see that happen.
ReplyDeleteThis is what they will do In the near future.
ReplyDelete1. Go on to develop a web OS it would be free (Well! May be Ad Words supported)
2. Memory wont be unlimited but will be something like gmail (i.e. keeps growing as we add Google adds on server farms).
3. Take over smaller companies like YouOS to get a good user strength.
4. Its web OS; will be like its search; it KEEPS LEARNING about user patterns if not about users details. (Google does not care about what porn you are interested in, when you are indirectly teaching it natural language processing).
5. As it's Intelligence grows Day by Day, The first True AI system will be born.
6.As Google cannot keep adding server's at their own cost ,It might ask users to plug-in their computers to the GRID (Thanks to Internet 2 it will be as fast as a high speed optical LAN of today),It Might even pay you for it.
7. Soon, As soon as you sit in front of your computer Google will take over and do every thing for you.
8. A system will be built (sorry! GET BUILT) wherein you tell your requirements in plain English and Google will generate the software for you.
9. Massive job losses are seen in sectors of BPO and IT outsourcing as Google does every thing (poor chaps, like me, in India will loose their jobs).
10. This might sound ridiculous, but who would have imagined that Google will build a Translate tool simply by feeding its machines large amounts of data.
11. Very soon high end jobs like Management could also be done on the GRID companies allow Google to take over.
12. Google’s GRID Boy, win's best artist competition.
13. Hollywood might be using scripts generated by Google’s GRID.
(You see with growth of its AI, It also becomes creative.)
14.A Time occurs when Technological singularity is reached.
15. Humans are no longer capable of being brainy or creative ,so as a rebellion some humans stay off the GRID.
19. Rapid collapses and shifts happen in all spheres of life economies, people, civilizations vanish as the GRID grows powerful.
20. World leaders meet to discuss the growing power of the GRID.
21. Well it cannot be shut down as they are too dependent on it.
22. Google will not be a company in mountain view, It will be all prevailing, ominipresent, all knowing GOD.
23. Humans and the GRID come to a conclusion ---GRID is allowed take over.
The Rest, you tell me...
24. Wait for Neo starts....
ReplyDeleteits about time google took control of the world - they already own it.
ReplyDeleteIn your dreams, Google. Fortunately for the rest of us, portable massive solid state is on the way. I'll rather keep my data on an encrypted personal device, than entrust (!) it to an entity that openly admits snooping it.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I dont trust any company with all my data. I know google doesnt delete anything, and I am sure they are using for their own purposes, taht is why i dont use their email for anything but as a repository for funny emails, I dont trust them have access to it anytime they want, it is like leaving your mail open on your desk at home, and having gazillions of people coming in and walking by it. That is what I think anyways
ReplyDeleteGoogle launched many features that deal with saving personal stuff, but the big picture in which all of them will be integrated is yet to be revealed. I always index and search the documents and viewed web pages from across all your computers.
ReplyDeleteGoogle wants to blur the distinction between your personal computer and the web. The first visible sign was when they integrated desktop search interface into Google.com. The second step is creating online tools that partially replace similar desktop applications (see Gmail, Calendar, Writely, Spreadsheets). The third step will be synchronizing the files between online and offline applications and solving the right access problem (what's public, private or restricted).
ReplyDeleteSome run headlong into the future, some are dragged kicking and screaming. No one escapes. What it holds remains to be seen. Just because it's going to happen doesn't mean it's going to be good or bad. There is real danger that "the internet" will be mankinds undoing ... society as we know it is in a sense, under attack, the rules are changing faster than we can even imagine them. By the time we start to notice repercussions, the rules have changed yet again. Is this good? In and of itself I cannot ever say that excess speed yields the results one would hope for, many are being hurt, many more will be hurt. when the dust settles, the survivors will either be the ones who "got" the technology changes, or simply the ones who can adapt to changes in general. I'm betting on the second group. Google and Microsoft ultimately want only one thing, control = cash. Cash, cash cash. Cash in and of itself is never the answer to making the lives of the many better. Concern for all, and appreciation for peoples unique qualities is what yields a better life for all. The rest is just bullshit. How to make money by acing out the other guy. Will Google win? Maybe.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who feels they will be better off for the outcome is missing the point.