23 years. Do you think Google has made the world a better place?

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

Yes. The world is better because of Google. The revolutionized information storage, email communications, and provided most of the best ideas in cell phone technology.

The age of privacy was always ending. At least Google gives us things that are useful as they take advantage of the fact that the world is a connected place as compared to companies like Facebook and Twitter which are truly a net negative on people and society.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I'd say no, since the search results are based on ad revenue and/or other nefarious factors.

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Unless it says AD on it, search results aren't based on ad revenue.

It's easy to get mad at Google for "tracking us" but so do credit card companies, credit agencies, the government, internet providers, any streaming video service, and pretty much anything else.

If Google had never been born do you think we'd be living in a 1950s world where the only tracking would be your address in the phone book?

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Search in general is clearly great...I'm just not sure if the previous leaders in the space (Alta Vista, etc) would have been better. Maybe it was inevitable that Google's model would win out.

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Google is also the reason that email is so good and that smartphones are so good. Apple created the iPhone and then Google created almost everything good about the iPhone.

Even Google Maps is a huge advance and it's not even that high on the list of their achievements.

Compare that to Facebook and Twitter who basically just exist to give people mental health issues and to sell used baby clothing.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Google, yes. Social media, hell no!

But I don't think Google invented the tech...they bought the company that had developed it (Keystone or Keyhole, or something like that). Similar to YouTube being bought by Google.

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Youtube was a fairly complete product. The map stuff they bought was mostly about the data behind the scenes that did route planning. I don't think it was even a web interface. It may have been something you could buy and install and print out on your home computer. Google took it, put it on the web, and then in phones, made it real time with traffic and expected travel times based on the current day, and put it all on your phone so your phone is literally better than standalone gps mapping units. In the mid 2000s we were still printing out mapquest directions. Right now that feels as ancient as using dial up internet.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

I remember using maps for road trips and needing to stop at gas stations for local maps in the early 2000's. I also knew some short cuts that most people didn't know. Now Google gives everyone that information. Sad!

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Be well

GO BEARS!!!

Yes, especially the 3 biggest things Google is known for SEARCH, ANDROID, and YOUTUBE has changed human perceptions and knowledge than ever before. YouTube has shown independent content creators are sometimes more entertaining than what you see on regular TV. YouTube also changed the landscape (cutting the cord) of the people having to subscribe to cable and started the streaming services from various competitors like Hulu, Apple, Netflix, Amazon, Disney, etc. Also YouTube has shown people from all over the world whether poor or rich countries are not much different than of the people in the United States and want similar things in there lives that we do. Social Media and internet has made the world a much smaller place than it was before Google and internet.

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"You know 'that look' women get when they want sex? Me neither" ~Steve Martin

Google offers almost instantaneous access to information that previously was difficult to access. So there is clearly some net benefit to the company. That said the power they wield to control the news, and the way they filter information is creeping totalitarianism.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

Sort of.

Basically it's leveled the playing field. It used to be a bigger divide between smart people and dummies.

Smart people can survive without Google.

It's made dummies appear much smarter.

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All of it is bad but we're all addicted to it. Can't cope without it even though it makes us miserable. Google is slightly better in that its more utilitarian, but it is a baby I'd gladly throw out with the bathwater. This idea that technology and "progress" are immutable forces we must just accept even though they significantly worsen our lives is hopefully an idea soon due for extinction.

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"Yes, I would just like to say I'm sailing with the rock, and I'll be back, like Independence Day, with Jesus. June 6, like the movie. Big mother ship and all, I'll be back, I'll be back."

This board is proof of that

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Google is a net positive in terms of what they provide. If you don't like them, it's fairly easy to use Opera and DuckDuckGo if that's your preference

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“When I walked in this morning, and saw the flag was at half mast, I thought 'alright another bureaucrat ate it.'" - Ron Swanson

yes.

they made breitbart harder to find and i want to thank them for automatically adding the word 'bias' in the google search for the cwb chicago twitter website. thanks for steering us in the correct direction.

yahoo definitely hasn't.

Google's influence is a lot bigger than search.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

Google is arguably more powerful than any empire in history.

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Anybody here seen my old friend Bobby?
Can you tell me where he's gone?
I thought I saw him walkin' up to The Hill
With Elon, Tulsi, and Don

And the search engine is the closest thing to God that humans have created. It's an interesting discussion. Google certainly has more power over the flow of information than any empire ever has. The Google-Facebook-Amazon grouping is powerful beyond the imagination of the most ardent 19th Century robber baron.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

information is useless if you cant contextualize it. its why you still need to remember stuff and why recall and memorization is such a crucial part of understanding.

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"Yes, I would just like to say I'm sailing with the rock, and I'll be back, like Independence Day, with Jesus. June 6, like the movie. Big mother ship and all, I'll be back, I'll be back."

People don't need to remember. They can just Google it.

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

Humans are pretty terrible at remembering stuff though. That's why the printed word was such a revolution. If you gave me the final exam from my US history class in high school I'm guessing I've forgotten more than half of the answers.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

That's what terrifies me with respect to one of Elon Musk's companies, Neuralink. Their goal is to create a human brain to computer interface whereby you would have a chip implanted and have instant access to Google and the full internet. It sounds useful on the surface, but I can imagine people feeling pressure to have it done to them, lest they or their kids fall behind others who have the implant. A real Gattaca nightmare.

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Well I wouldn't worry too much. Tech loves to overpromised and even more to underdeliver. There were supposed to be fully autonomous cars driving around by now if you remember the headlines of 2013 and 2014. I think if you are over the age of like ten the odds of this existing even in your twilight years are very low.

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"Yes, I would just like to say I'm sailing with the rock, and I'll be back, like Independence Day, with Jesus. June 6, like the movie. Big mother ship and all, I'll be back, I'll be back."

well yeah that's because you haven't stuck with it or done any work to keep it fresh. dates, places and people are so important because if you cannot know those things then everything will appear to occur in a vaccuum. or worse yet somebody can easily mislead you into drawing connections that don't exist.

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"Yes, I would just like to say I'm sailing with the rock, and I'll be back, like Independence Day, with Jesus. June 6, like the movie. Big mother ship and all, I'll be back, I'll be back."

That's the point. You have to work really hard to keep information available. You can't do it with everything. Humans aren't good at it. That's where printed words and then the internet comes in.

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

Really hard? No. Its not that difficult. I memorized all the British prime minsters, their party and at least one or two things they did. Every month or I so I retake the sporcle quiz to keep it fresh, takes like ten minutes. A lot of work boy you just have to remember to do it. I promise you have the free time and spare energy.

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"Yes, I would just like to say I'm sailing with the rock, and I'll be back, like Independence Day, with Jesus. June 6, like the movie. Big mother ship and all, I'll be back, I'll be back."

that's actually what my sister does to remind her of state capitals. why she feels she needs to retain that specific bit of info i have no idea but she does the exact same thing.

i can do that with the doctor who doctors...so i can't reprimand her.