DOES GOOGLE KNOW YOU?

If you are one of Mr. Fela Durotoye’s fans who keenly follow his inspiring and motivational teachings, then you must have noticed that lately he doesn’t end his presentation without mentioning the importance of being known by Google. Actually, the first time I heard this, I was flabbergasted by the concept but after listening to his explanation on two different occasions, I couldn’t help but respect his idea, which is not as frivolous as it sounds. He believes that Google actually can be used as a yardstick for measuring people’s relevance or impact.

Google is a search engine that helps people find stuff on the internet. It knows something about everything that exists online. When you type in your key word appropriately on the search tool, it zooms off to fetch back related results- from text to images. The inspiring thing about the origin of Google is that it started off in 1996 as a research project by two students of Stanford University- Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who wanted to change the way people search the internet. Today, Google has become a world celebrated phenomenon. “As we go forward, I hope we‘re going to continue to use technology to make really big difference in how people live and work” said Sergey Brin.

From Mr. Durotoye’s perspective, Google has gone beyond just being a research tool for finding Essay topics or raw materials for Thesis. You can actually unmask people and learn about the “who is who” locally or globally by searching for their name on Google. In a nutshell, it is like a yardstick for measuring people’s impact or relevance. For example, I received a call from someone who sounded too grandeur to be true. Google searching for his name actually brought back no result. This confirmed what I suspected all along- he is phony! Or how can Google not know such a prominent (as he claimed) person in one of Nigeria ’s leading oil companies?

The internet has a way of archiving every single thing recorded online as a cached item, and it is the search engine’s business to dig it out. Now we have one more reason to watch our activities online because there is nothing hidden under Google. Moreover, one cannot tell when it will stop being “Does Google know you?” into becoming “What does Google know about you?” and then, employers of labor and other related officers will start using it as a means to checkout their prospective employee or people they deal with.

In this technology age that breeds global connectedness, the Google experience has become more pronounced. “Some say Google is a god. Others say Google is Satan. But if they think Google is too powerful, remember that with search engines unlike other companies all it takes is a single click to go to another search engine.” Said one of the Google founders.