The Society Of The Spectacle

Image from Stéfan’s Flickr

2010 has started with a bang for the worlds biggest search engine. Firstly, on Sunday, at the most watched Superbowl in history, Google paid $5 million to screen it’s 60 second ‘Parisian Love’ ad. Probably one of the best of the Superbowl ads, it’s simplicity showed the power and scope of Google’s search engine business. It was significant in other ways too. It was the first time Google had ever advertised it’s search engine. This was pounced on by commentators, bloggers and Google watchers as an admission of the pressures Google find’s itself under from Facebook in one corner and the emerging Microsoft Bing search engine.

Events this week have in fact revealed the opposite to be true. Yes, the facts remain Google has lost some market share to it’s rivals, but like any huge global corporation, Google’s not just got it’s finger firmly inserted in one pie, it’s sticky fingers are everywhere, and just like the after the opening credits of Star Wars have rolled, Google’s advancement into almost every single area of your web experience starts to look alot more like the Star Destroyer looming into view. (more…)

So this week, Windows 7 launched. For a Mac owner like me, it was not the sort of thing that was on my radar, until I read the TechCrunch column from old school chum,  now author (it’s a good read) Paul Carr. His typically provocative article highlighted the tie up between the most strangest of bedfellows. Seth MacFarlane, the iconic Family Guy show and the launch of Windows 7. (more…)