The company man

Yesterday I checked my inbox only to find an invitation to join Google voice. It's a service that basically assign you a new phone number which will ring your existing phone number(s) all the while giving you access to snazzy features such as transcribing your voice mails to text and sending a copy of I through email and onto your cell by text message. Really neat service and yet another in a growing list of products that I depend on them for. Add email, maps, contacts, calendar, blogger, YouTube, search, and my desire for an Android phone, I'm into them big time. Funny thing is I haven't paid red penny to use any of these things but as one of the biggest advertising companies on the web I give them the most valuable commodities in the business, information about their customer, and as the saying goes knowledge is power. But what does this mean for the regular Joe who signs up for an gmail account are they selling their souls to the big G? Will I see my electric bill bearing a return address to California soon? What does it matter because they have proven that they are capable of turning out fantastic products that are serviceable and accessible which all my price quota of FREE!? What's interesting will be how the next ten years treat Google as they begin to mature as a company will they face the same fire from government agencies that Microsoft weathered for the past decade. Until that I will stay hooked up to the machine dripping sweet Internet juice into my veins.

- Clifford "I love Google" Eiffler