Rogue Culture Aficionado

I remember being ecstatic when we were able to port our cellphone numbers to any service provider in 2006. My contract with Cingular (now AT&T) was ending and I was looking for a more economic service plan, better reception, and, frankly, a cooler cell phone. Now Google takes this business model and has patented it for the phone itself.

As reported on TechCrunch.com:

"The Google patent for 'Flexible Communication Systems and Methods' contends that cellphone users should also have the freedom to connect through various networks and methods, and that the communication service they choose at any particular time and location should be determined by competitive market forces.

The idea is that you could, for example, make phone calls and browse the internet on your smartphone via WiFi when at home, Verizon when downtown, and perhaps AT&T when out in the countryside. You’d base your decision on both pricing and quality of service, with the quality of coverage in your current location playing a major role."

Obviously this will work in favor of Google proposed gPhone , since their lobbying the FCC to grant licensing for use of white spaces (700mghz spectrum between TV channels) to give broader access to broadband users and products like the gPhone. Obvioulsy, Android -powered phones would be the first products able to use these"white spaces."

While it excites me to possibly be free of cell phone contracts, unfortunately, it further instills my belief that we may be endanger of becoming a GoogleNation . Think about it: The Android, the new Chrome browser, the Google-Yahoo pact, their new Wikipedia rival: Knols and, not to mention, being the most powerful/popular search engine on the Internet. Google will control not only how we find information but could easily control what information we are allowed to seek. Is it a far leap for Google to actually generate the information too? They have made it so easy to fall prey to GoogleNation, too. Take me for example, I am posting this through Blogger and I am considering changing my main email to a Gmail, precisely because of all of the wonderful Google paraphernalia: Google Docs, Google Calendar, Picasa, iGoogle, Adsense, Adworld and on and on and on. Somewhere we have to draw the line. Right now it's the Internet, none of us want it to become "Googlenet," do we? And as easily as Google has befriended us, there could come a time when they are not so friendly. Then what? I don't have the answers but I do believe Google's development should be watched carefully.

I will leave you with my paraphrased, reworked, quote mashup, originally made by Lord Acton and Sir Francis Bacon, that just happens to be well illustrated in today's volatile economy:

"If Knowledge is power, which tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Then great companies that control knowledge are almost always bad companies with far too much power, yet to be discovered."

Think about it.