A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article that was pretty critical of Google: Is Google more controlling than Apple? I have to admit that it was not as balanced in perspective as I like articles to be. I like for people to know both sides of an argument and to make up their own minds from the total data.
I didn’t deliberately withhold information that would have made Google look better, but I didn’t go out of my way to make sure I had a good balanced view. I was pissed at the time, and I am human.
I realized this when I came across the Wired article In Defense of Google, Or Why Consumer Watchdog is Full of It. That is about the most balanced piece on this subject that I’ve seen in a long while. It’s definitely worth a read.
Also worth a read is the article by Google engineer Matt Cutts on Google’s new Google Instant Search. Matt mentions a lot of good points, including the amount of time that this could save globally: “If everyone uses Google Instant globally, we estimate this will save more than 3.5 billion seconds a day. That’s 11 hours saved every second.”
As someone who has believe in saving time ever since I was a kid, this kind of innovation really appeals to me and makes me appreciate the engineering talent of Google. If you haven’t tried it out, I highly recommend spending some time with it.