Mapping Google’s Growing
Empire of Brands
Ah, to Be Aggregated
Being assimilated into someone else’s Collective is not generally desirable. But many happily relinquish control when Google decides to acquire their enterprise.
If you logged into media distribution and RSS feed provider FeedBurner earlier this summer, you saw legal copy indicating you had 14 days to opt out before the rights to your data were transfered to Google.
Two striking thoughts:
1) Google has assimilated yet another service.
2) The rights to your data now belong to Google.
Mapping It All Out
For a quick overview of their reach, check out our Mindjet map of Google’s growing empire. Since the map is meant to show only the extent of their services, items on the map are unweighted and appear in random order.
While probably far from complete, it shows Google’s ever-widening breadth of assets representing easily accessible public information points. They have our email—both corporate and private, our search data, our website data through analytics, and much, much more.
May We Have Some Privacy?
Privacy concerns continue to be raised about the search giant. Privacy International put Google at the bottom of its first-ever privacy rankings and tussled with the search giant over allegations that Google conducted a preemptive smear campaign against them to discredit the about-to-be-released results.
Love ‘em or hate ‘em, if information is king, Google most certainly represents the new information-laden Rome. Important to keep in mind as you seek to connect and protect your brand in their growing online landscape.
Downloads
Privacy International’s Rankings Report | 96 KB .pdf
Google Empire Mindjet Map | 37 KB .mmap
Google Empire PDF | 104 KB .pdf
Image: Checco
