Google in the real world
![](https://sjhoward.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/DALL·E-2023-10-22-21.16.59-Photo-of-the-Google-logo-painted-on-an-old-weathered-wooden-signpost.-In-the-background-a-full-moon-shines-casting-long-shadows-and-illuminating-a--1000x1000.png)
Google’s parent company, Alphabet, will publish its financial results for the third quarter today.
A couple of weeks ago, I was on a course for work about something utterly unrelated to technology.1 During one presentation, one of the tutors said something along the lines of:
The report of that public inquiry is really easy to find on G—
I mean, it’s easy to find if you search online. I was going to say ‘on Google’, but that feels a bit creepy nowadays, doesn’t it?
It’s the first time I’ve heard someone express that idea in real life, which felt like a significant moment to me. I’m not suggesting that a perception of creepiness is about to make a huge dent in Alphabet’s profits, but it feels like a far cry from the social cachet that a brand like Google once held. It doesn’t feel like that’s a positive place for a consumer-facing brand to find itself, and certainly not for the long term.
- It was about commanding the response to major incidents, which is the sort of course which is both incredibly useful and a bit frightening. ↩
The image at the top of this post was generated by DALL·E 3.
This post was filed under: News and Comment, Post-a-day 2023, Technology, Alphabet, Google.