Writely, the word processing app with lots of potential, has gone Google. Not sure what this means yet, but, then again, neither are they. Should we be worried? Excited? Both?
Or is it time to get off the Google Grid? #
Bud the Teacher
Inquiry & Reflection for Better Learning
I adore writely and I love the new Google sign in page. Google, however, is beginning to make me nervous as they have expressed a desire to aggregate everyone’s data. Ewan wrote some about the Google thing yesterday and he elicited a comment from me. I like you, Bud, have some concerns about Google.
Information is the commodity of the future. I love Google and believe their search algorithms to be the best. However, to have a monopoly opens up potential for all sorts of abuses and in particular, censorship.
I have to wonder if some of this isn’t being driven by Google’s desire to reach 20% of the earth, living in China. With dynamic content beyond comprehension on the Internet, how can a company filter in real time without creating a server farm in the state of perpetual choke. Here comes the idea — a server farm that mirrors the Internet. (A giant “proxy server” for those of us technologic types.) The information is filtered prior to going into the “proxy.” The data can then be filtered, etc. prior to being stored.
I would add that writely would make a nice addition to their compendium of information.
It makes a lot of sense for Google trying to speed up their services.
The downside is the potential for abuse. Instead of parent filters, we are going to have government filters with “rose colored glasses” of the government kind imposed on their citizens. This is only the beginning.
If one can control information, one can ATTEMPT to control thought.
Finally, I sure hope Google gets back to innovating. The folks at Writely have done more improvements to their service in the past month than Google has done to blogspot in the past three months!
Yeah, I noticed that the other day when I logged on to Writely. I am a little uneasy about it because I just generally don’t like big outfits controlling too many aspects of my life. I really love Writely, though, and use it regularly, so I am reluctant to give up on it. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
I like the fact that Writely will now have a larger pool of funding to draw on to continue their innovative work. The more diverse sets of applications similar to this that are available, the better things get. After all…Microsoft could have bought them too, you know.