2008 Woodie Awards
The "Googlebeast" conquers humanity
Andy Downs
Issue date: 10/18/07 Section: Opinions
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Remember the good ol' days of Internet competition - a time when you had to sit in front of your monitor, typing in the addresses of search engine after search engine after none of them could present you with a single link for "local movie listings" - or, in other words, "The Pre-Google Era?"
Yes, it was a glorious time: When Britney and the Backstreet Boys ruled the airwaves, when Americans viewed Muslims as friendly shop owners instead of terrorists, and a time when Al Gore was still legitimately boring.
It was also a time of confusion, when the Internet was still relatively young, naive and inexperienced, kind of like any given Rumrunner's-goer on a Tuesday night.
You had your choice of lycos.com, altavista.com, yahoo.com, askjeeves.com and so on and so on...but which one is gonna give you what you're searching for?
I, myself, decided to pick one that looked suitable enough and stick with it, and oddly enough, I still use it today, just not for searching but rather for news.
That old horse would be Yahoo, and it's the only one around today that competes with the God-like entity that has become the "Googlebeast."
But Yahoo is rather weak and frail compared to the overpowering "Googlebeast." Now, there's Google Desktop, which is used to search for anything and everything on your computer, from pixels to pictures to porn. There's even a Google search bar built in to nearly every Web browser these days, eliminating the dreadful step of typing "google.com" into the address bar.
But how and when did this beast rise up and dominate every search engine in its path? How did Google build an empire so large everyone who knows what the Internet is knows the word "Google?"
"Googlebeast" has so much power it has even made itself into a verb. "Hey, can you Google something for me?" Or even, "Yeah, I can site my sources; I Googled that s--t!"
This entity is a living, breathing creature. It's shapeless and can be seen in a variety of forms, from that multi-colored logo on the Google homepage to just about anywhere on the Web. It marks everything.
Yes, it was a glorious time: When Britney and the Backstreet Boys ruled the airwaves, when Americans viewed Muslims as friendly shop owners instead of terrorists, and a time when Al Gore was still legitimately boring.
It was also a time of confusion, when the Internet was still relatively young, naive and inexperienced, kind of like any given Rumrunner's-goer on a Tuesday night.
You had your choice of lycos.com, altavista.com, yahoo.com, askjeeves.com and so on and so on...but which one is gonna give you what you're searching for?
I, myself, decided to pick one that looked suitable enough and stick with it, and oddly enough, I still use it today, just not for searching but rather for news.
That old horse would be Yahoo, and it's the only one around today that competes with the God-like entity that has become the "Googlebeast."
But Yahoo is rather weak and frail compared to the overpowering "Googlebeast." Now, there's Google Desktop, which is used to search for anything and everything on your computer, from pixels to pictures to porn. There's even a Google search bar built in to nearly every Web browser these days, eliminating the dreadful step of typing "google.com" into the address bar.
But how and when did this beast rise up and dominate every search engine in its path? How did Google build an empire so large everyone who knows what the Internet is knows the word "Google?"
"Googlebeast" has so much power it has even made itself into a verb. "Hey, can you Google something for me?" Or even, "Yeah, I can site my sources; I Googled that s--t!"
This entity is a living, breathing creature. It's shapeless and can be seen in a variety of forms, from that multi-colored logo on the Google homepage to just about anywhere on the Web. It marks everything.