About 20 years ago, I typed Google.com into my web browser for the first time. It loaded a search bar and buttons. I punched in “DMV sample test”, scrolled through the results and clicked on a site.
Once I found the link, I was done with Google.
When I do a Google search now, I spend far more time in the Internet company’s universe. If I look for chocolate chips, I see Google ads for chocolate chips pop up at the top of my screen, followed by recipes that Google has scraped from across the web, followed by Google Maps and Google Reviews of nearby bakeries, followed by YouTube videos for how to bake chocolate chip cookies. (YouTube, of course, is owned by Google.)
Recently, the US justice department sued the company for anticompetitive practices. The case focussed on its search and how it appeared to create a monopoly through exclusive business contracts that locked out rivals.
Google tweeted that the lawsuit was “deeply flawed”.
To Gabriel Weinberg, the chief executive of DuckDuckGo, which offers a privacy-focussed search engine, what I have experienced was Google’s plan all along.
“I don’t think it was happenstance,” said Weinberg. Google collects reams of information about us across its products, allowing it to stitch together detailed profiles about our interests.
So in 2012, Weinberg broke up with Google and purged his accounts. “I got to understand the privacy implications of building massive profiles on people — and the massive harm,” he said.
To test that argument, I decided to catalog Google’s presence in our lives.
Ads everywhere
When we load a web article containing an ad served by Google, the company keeps a record of the website that loaded the ad — even if we didn’t click on the ad.
Google’s ad technologies also include invisible analytics code, which runs in the background of many websites. About 74 per cent of the sites we visit run Google analytics, according to DuckDuckGo. So that’s even more data we are feeding about ourselves to Google, often without knowing it.
Phones and PCs
People with Android devices download apps from Google’s Play store. Android includes Google’s staple apps for maps and email, and Google search is prominently featured for looking up articles and digging through device settings. Google’s voice-powered virtual assistant is also part of Android devices.
Google looms large even on iPhones. It has been the default search bar on their Safari browser since 2007. Gmail is the world’s most popular email service, so chances are you use it on your iPhone. Google owns 10 of the 100 most-downloaded apps in the Google and Apple app stores.
On PCs, over 65 per cent of us use Chrome. Schools have chosen the Chromebook, low-cost PCs that run Google’s operating system, as the most widely used tech tool for students.
Online video
YouTube is by far the largest video-hosting platform. Another way is via YouTube TV, a streaming service that offers a bundle of channels.
Home and beyond
If you recently bought an Internet-connected gadget for your home, chances are Google is behind it. After all, the company offers Google Home, one of the most popular smart speakers and powered by Google’s virtual assistant, and it owns Nest, the smart-home brand that makes Internet-connected security cameras, smoke alarms and thermostats.
We often interact with Google even when we use an app that lacks a clear connection with it. That’s because Google provides the cloud infrastructure, or the server technology that lets us stream videos and download files, to other brands. Even Weinberg, who quit Google, said he had been unable to shake its services entirely.
NYTNS
