I used to be a huge fan of Google. My home pages are all set to Google. As a search engine it was the cleanest and easiest to use. I loved it for years. Sadly it had its sights higher than just a simple search engine.

Now when I look at anything these days, it’s got Google all over it. Gmail made sense. It allows Google to push ads. I got that, I understood it. I embraced this new product by Google. Google Maps, sure. I like Google maps. It’s still a simple tool to use. It’s evolved over the years to include Street View and all that. I’m good with that. Google Reader? I love this app on my phone, tablet, and even the web page. It makes keeping my RSS feeds straight and I’m happy with how it works even if they seem to push an app change on a weekly basis that makes me need to figure it out all over again, but I still like it.

Google Docs? This is a very useful tool. I’m not sure why no one else had developed something like this, but I do like what Google Docs has allowed Mike Plested and I to do with our collaborative efforts.

Google+. Well, ok. This is kind of what Facebook used to be. I guess I can understand this, but do I really need another social media outlet? I like Google Hangouts and all that, but it seems to be something that wasn’t needed that’s just invading my space.

My phone and tablet are both Android. I liked them being Android. I liked the Android market. I liked what I could do with my phone. Then I got a push and now I’ve got Google Books, Google Play, Google Music. Suddenly I went from having an android phone to having a google phone. Why? Why is Google all over my phone? I mean, I understood the little Google Search bar my tablet had, but did Google really need to invade my phone so much?

Even when Google started pushing ads on my searches, I was okay with it. But they’ve started to go over the top. Now when I do a Google search, I get my results and when I go to click that first link…BAM! Ads pop in just before I can click anything and unless I sit and wait I’m usually clicking on an ad for something I didn’t intend to go to. Why? Why not just have the ads on the side like it used to?

Am I wrong here? Is Google going over the top? Do I really want Google Goggles when they come out so my entire life is all Google all the time? When will this end? Will Netflicks soon become gFlicks? Will Starbucks become gBucks? Will Google start to push into the real world and be in everything I do? When will they stop trying to conquer the world? If their apps remained as simple as they started out I think I’d like Google much more, but the longer I’m using their apps the more they’re morphing into something that I’m no longer a fan of. What happened to simple? What happened to clean and streamlined? Google is a search engine. Why do I need Google Chrome as my web browser? Why can’t Google remember I said ‘no’ the first time it asked if I wanted to install it? Why doesn’t it realize it’s already my homepage and quit asking me? I want my Google to be the same Google it used to be.

Maybe I’m just getting old and crotchety and want things the way they used to be. Maybe I don’t want everything I used to be Google. Just because it lives on the internet doesn’t mean I want it to be Google run. Can’t we roll back some of these Google developments? Do we really need Google cars that drive themselves? I think it’s wonderful they’re working on that, but why isn’t anyone else? Where are the automated cars that drive themselves from Yahoo? Or WebCrawlers? Or DogPile? Why is Google the only ones to be so far reaching and all these other search engines are just search engines?

I’m going to Google Google and see just how far their reach is. This might take a while, so I’ll do this in my spare time. I’m sure their reach is far greater than I think it is. Could Google be the start of SkyNet?

Until Next Time?

GOO GOO!

P.S. For a list of everything Google (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Google_products)