It seems like human nature to want to choose sides. Good versus Evil. Axis or Allies. Chocolate or vanilla. Transformers or Go Bots. Superman or Batman or Spiderman or Aquaman...you get the idea. The world wide web is no different. There are conflicting companies who are competing for our hard earned dollars everyday, and I'm talking about the big boys here. Google, Facebook and Apple. These are the biggest, most involved companies I can think of. These companies effect my life hourly. The fact that they are all rivals makes one want to choose a side, but sometimes you need to use, and enjoy using, all three.
Yes, this is ridiculous that we are all tied to these major, major ass-fucking companies who will try to bend you over for each and every dollar you earn, just like every other company that has existed ever. Well, at least the successful ones will do this. That's why they're successful. They make money. They make you spend your money on their product. They make you want it as well as sometimes need it. A company's dream is for you to absolutely need the product they provide, because you can't live without it. See: Drug companies. Tech companies have spent years developing ways to intergrate themselves into ours lives so that we must have them to do the things they have made us want to do. Pretty damn clever if you ask me. Google I would say has done the best job of this, because if you do anything neat-o on the web, chances are it is through Google.
Facebook made it possible to connect with every person you ever had contact with. Ever. If I have a conversation with someone on the street and I catch their name, I could probably find them on Facebook and continute the conversation. They can be my friend forever if I so choose to have them. It's something that has become almost a necessity. I can share all the precious moments of my little two-month old daughter with all my family all across the country with the power of Facebook. I have to have a Facebook. I could share these things another way, but Facebook just makes it easier.
Apple has made the telephone so much more than a telephone. They have made the telephone into your handheld computer. Your connection to everything on the web when you're away from your computer. You don't have to be tied down to connect with everyone you've ever met, ever. You can do it while taking a dump at Target. You can do it on your road trip to Phoenix, while stopped somewhere in Utah. You can play games whenever, wherever (so long as it's a safe place, like not driving your car, or whatever.) You get the idea. Apple revolutionized the way we connect with friends and family. I can hold my iPhone in my hand and find something to do with it for hours and hours and hours on end. I say Apple did this because they did it first and they did it best. They are the industry leader in this aspect. Google followed suit with Android, but it's a pretender. Apple is responsible for this revolution, no matter how you slice it.
The point of all this, which I'm sure you're aware of all the facts I pointed out above, is that these are all rivals. These companies are all vying for your dollar. They need to come up with innovative ways to improve upon what their rivals come out with. They need to one-up each other. Sometimes it works (Mobile photo sharing via Facebook, Google's Blogger and other various add-ons and innovations, iTunes) and sometimes it doesn't (Google Buzz, Facebook chat, um...Apple has never failed, apparently. I can't think of one.) Apple has the music market cornered with iTunes. Facebook, I hear, is going to unveil their music division or service or whatever in the near future. Google will release (or has released, not sure if it's out or not yet) an cloud based music service, like Amazon already has. (DID I FORGET TO ADD AMAZON TO THE WEB GIANTS? YEP.)
Anyway, you get the idea. It all comes back to the consumers choice of which side they prefer. Some want no part of it, and choose to live in the woods like Bob Balbierz. Everyone else has their lives touched at least a little by these companies. But I don't want to choose. I have an iPhone, use iTunes regularly, yet strictly use Google for web surfing, blogging, emailing, translating, web reading, calendering, and using the internet in general by using Google Chrome. I am 90% a google guy, except for their phone software. That's where Apple is #1 for reasons I described above. Now, Apple doesn't offer ANY of the things Google does, so that's probably why I don't use them for all of this. If they rolled it any of it, would I use it? Probably not. Google does a great job and it's what I'm used to. And I'm not a Mac guy as far as the actual computer. I have used PC's my entire life and I like them! Yet I cannot, neigh WILL NOT use any other phone than the iPhone. I refuse to downgrade.
And then there's Facebook. I only use Facebook at this point because I feel I have to. Everyone is on there and I love everyone. My hope is that Facebook will go the way of the Myspace soon enough. And that's the hopes of Google when they unveiled their newest thingermabob the other day, Google+. Apparently Google+ is so badass, some industry experts expect it to do just that, put Facebook in a headlock. I'm not so sure. It took this long for mom, auntie Sue, Cousin Larry with one eye and your 11th grade english teacher to get on Facebook, what makes you think they're suddenly going to say, "hey, lets change everything I just got comfortable with." Ask Twitter how well that's going. (600 million v.s. 200 million, which is closer than I thought it would be, according to the latest data I found, which was in December of last year.) No, it's not going to happen overnight, but I think this Google+ thing, if it's really done correctly like the experts are saying it is, will make an impact. Only time will tell, and in the tech world, that time could be very very short. So I'll see you on Google+ as soon as we're all able to get on it. As for whose side I'm on? Leaning Google, just so you know. It's so slick!
Yes, this is ridiculous that we are all tied to these major, major ass-fucking companies who will try to bend you over for each and every dollar you earn, just like every other company that has existed ever. Well, at least the successful ones will do this. That's why they're successful. They make money. They make you spend your money on their product. They make you want it as well as sometimes need it. A company's dream is for you to absolutely need the product they provide, because you can't live without it. See: Drug companies. Tech companies have spent years developing ways to intergrate themselves into ours lives so that we must have them to do the things they have made us want to do. Pretty damn clever if you ask me. Google I would say has done the best job of this, because if you do anything neat-o on the web, chances are it is through Google.
Facebook made it possible to connect with every person you ever had contact with. Ever. If I have a conversation with someone on the street and I catch their name, I could probably find them on Facebook and continute the conversation. They can be my friend forever if I so choose to have them. It's something that has become almost a necessity. I can share all the precious moments of my little two-month old daughter with all my family all across the country with the power of Facebook. I have to have a Facebook. I could share these things another way, but Facebook just makes it easier.
Apple has made the telephone so much more than a telephone. They have made the telephone into your handheld computer. Your connection to everything on the web when you're away from your computer. You don't have to be tied down to connect with everyone you've ever met, ever. You can do it while taking a dump at Target. You can do it on your road trip to Phoenix, while stopped somewhere in Utah. You can play games whenever, wherever (so long as it's a safe place, like not driving your car, or whatever.) You get the idea. Apple revolutionized the way we connect with friends and family. I can hold my iPhone in my hand and find something to do with it for hours and hours and hours on end. I say Apple did this because they did it first and they did it best. They are the industry leader in this aspect. Google followed suit with Android, but it's a pretender. Apple is responsible for this revolution, no matter how you slice it.
The point of all this, which I'm sure you're aware of all the facts I pointed out above, is that these are all rivals. These companies are all vying for your dollar. They need to come up with innovative ways to improve upon what their rivals come out with. They need to one-up each other. Sometimes it works (Mobile photo sharing via Facebook, Google's Blogger and other various add-ons and innovations, iTunes) and sometimes it doesn't (Google Buzz, Facebook chat, um...Apple has never failed, apparently. I can't think of one.) Apple has the music market cornered with iTunes. Facebook, I hear, is going to unveil their music division or service or whatever in the near future. Google will release (or has released, not sure if it's out or not yet) an cloud based music service, like Amazon already has. (DID I FORGET TO ADD AMAZON TO THE WEB GIANTS? YEP.)
Anyway, you get the idea. It all comes back to the consumers choice of which side they prefer. Some want no part of it, and choose to live in the woods like Bob Balbierz. Everyone else has their lives touched at least a little by these companies. But I don't want to choose. I have an iPhone, use iTunes regularly, yet strictly use Google for web surfing, blogging, emailing, translating, web reading, calendering, and using the internet in general by using Google Chrome. I am 90% a google guy, except for their phone software. That's where Apple is #1 for reasons I described above. Now, Apple doesn't offer ANY of the things Google does, so that's probably why I don't use them for all of this. If they rolled it any of it, would I use it? Probably not. Google does a great job and it's what I'm used to. And I'm not a Mac guy as far as the actual computer. I have used PC's my entire life and I like them! Yet I cannot, neigh WILL NOT use any other phone than the iPhone. I refuse to downgrade.
And then there's Facebook. I only use Facebook at this point because I feel I have to. Everyone is on there and I love everyone. My hope is that Facebook will go the way of the Myspace soon enough. And that's the hopes of Google when they unveiled their newest thingermabob the other day, Google+. Apparently Google+ is so badass, some industry experts expect it to do just that, put Facebook in a headlock. I'm not so sure. It took this long for mom, auntie Sue, Cousin Larry with one eye and your 11th grade english teacher to get on Facebook, what makes you think they're suddenly going to say, "hey, lets change everything I just got comfortable with." Ask Twitter how well that's going. (600 million v.s. 200 million, which is closer than I thought it would be, according to the latest data I found, which was in December of last year.) No, it's not going to happen overnight, but I think this Google+ thing, if it's really done correctly like the experts are saying it is, will make an impact. Only time will tell, and in the tech world, that time could be very very short. So I'll see you on Google+ as soon as we're all able to get on it. As for whose side I'm on? Leaning Google, just so you know. It's so slick!
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