An Evaluation of the Rise and Significance of Google as a Mass Medium - Case Study Example

Name: Course: College: Tutor: Date: 15th April 2009 Rise of Google The rise of Google over the years is a remarkable thing when we talk of the growth of mass mediums through the online technologies. Google has proofed that it is the industries giant from the services it offers, among the services that Google offers which include, the Google search engine, Google maps, Google earth and when it comes to the web analytics, it has been shaking up the opponents who are fee-based through their free offering mostly to the advertising companies. It is through this that Google has been able to grab the market share lead. Since the development of back n 1996, Google has consistently grown bigger and better to the extent of taking the lead in the market. According to Tony Byrne who is the founder of CMS watch, Google is today holding for itself the greatest number of customers than the rest of the players in the market. This has been made possible for the customers who range from individuals to corporate prefer the slicker interface found in Google. It became available to the internet users in 19998 able to Internet users in late 1998, this is the time at which the it fully rose to dominance in the search for the search results it yields, quality that depends in part on the sophistication of Google's search algorithm but also on the sophistication of its users, who are growing all the time. Google as a mass medium has got a lot of significance to the large number of audience that it has out here and is of great of significance to them. Significance on Education Google has become a very significant tool to most scholars in various ways. Searching the web is one way one can gather information depending on the topic of research or the Subject of search, on the choice of the education category one belongs to. Google has partnered with educational institution like the Universities and other organizations and offer them the ability to purchase a subscription for the users to a full text of million of titles. At the same time, they do the compensation for the authors in order to foster growth in the education sector. Moreover, there is a personal mode where one purchase a full text online access to a lot of books that are available on the internet what is required is an internet access and one will read an entire book by simply having a book search account, which clearly shows how Google as a mass media supports the education sector. Google is simply living within its mission as a mass medium to organize information in the world making it accessible universally and useful to all of the people around the world as they have teamed up with most of the partners in the publishing industry. Significance in News Dissemination As a mass medium Google has done a lot in ensuring that as many people as possible get the News making headlines in different parts of the world. This has been a success due to the teaming up of different news agencies with Google to ensure that there is an accurate dissemination of the news events as the unfold, thus showing great importance to the mass. Moreover Google has ensured that the man languages there are in the world are catered for such that it requires the user to change the language to his/her language of choice and be able to proceed with what he/she wishes to read from the Google News web page. Like mentioned here, the Google News is available in 19 (nineteen) languages and around 40 (forty) regions around the world. Among the languages that Google News is available in is English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese (traditional and simplified characters), and Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Arabic, Hebrew, Norwegian, Czech, Swedish, Greek, Russian and many others. Only recently due to the increased mass audience that Google has that it brought in a fully loaded website in the Swahili Language. Google News provides a nice and customized news search for those with great interest in knowing of what is taking place around the world. The News are always sown by date and time when the events take place. In addition the mass audience can register for Google news alerts using different keywords topics directly to their email address and the instance there is something that matches the request by the people then Google haves it sent to the email. By so doing Google has consistently continued to increase its audience all around the world and becoming a giant in the News and information world. Significance as an Advertising arm Through Google, company’s and individuals are able to advertise the vast number of audience that surf through the Google search engine. Google allows the advertising to people who are searching through the web and also on their advertising network. It also helps companies reach people who are actively searching for information regarding products and services those companies offer. During the advertising process, Google assists the advertisers to control the cost by only paying for the running for the adverts only when an audience is reached. Significance to business To most Businesses and corporations that have entered in deals with Google, they are making a great deal of benefits from its use in their operations; these benefits are from various dimensions, ranging from the nature of the business/corporation, size to the market accessibility. Some of the positive effects that the use of the internet has to these businesses and corporations have are; Productivity of the business The use of the Google in business has greatly been termed as E-Business. Business productivity is about technology use at work. While it automates many work processes and gives us the power to control information, technology is the leading cause of productivity loss at work. From Windows games to e-mail and instant messaging, technology makes it easier than ever to get in touch with the clients base that is found beyond the business premise and bring them close to your operation while they are actually miles away from you. In many cases business losses include both money and privacy but the vast majority of companies lack the tools and metrics to quantify this impact which is found in the use of the internet. Moreover a business can reach and build a greater market via the internet. (Mainwaring2000) On the other hand, Google has become of great significance to many people in the field of health. It has been a goal Google to cover all topics this range from scientific concepts, to medical information, from product information, to how-to-fix-it instructions. This is made possible by the medical editorial team which is responsible of controlling the medical information and with the authors. The greatest hope is to have Google include the opinions and points of view of many of the authors putting their reputation on the lines. In this health information pages, anyone who wishes to reach the information will be free to write making Google reach a larger mass. Something about the health information is that people will be able to submit comments, questions, edits and also additional content. Another thing making the information that found on Google is that Google has done the best in taking complicated information, architecture and making it simple and easy to navigate. Many people around the world have given testimonies on how easy they found the navigation for the health site and very intuitive for them. According to the many people accessing this information, they have said that they have added to my profiles the items they wanted pretty easily. They are able to search their primary care physician and making it easy for them to add medical contacts all this powered by Google. All this shows that Google is reaching the mass in a very big way and with a boom. People are able to have the information they need stored for them for future reference. It has been pretty easy to add immunizations/procedures/meds by picking it from the list. Or one could do the typing in the open text box, and the more letters they type, the likely field appear. People have also liked the fact that there's a drug interaction area which show exactly which interactions to watch out for. This service by Google evolves in a way that enables consumers to obtain information that is both accurate and improves the quality of their lives Essentially, there is recognition by Google on that the majority of people begin health-related inquiries online at its search engine as to the search done at the health Web site. This made the company find the need on the demand for an improved research experience for these users. J.C 2007 Google as a mass medium has made the majority of users looking for health information go for it as a search engine. By digitizing health records and giving control over them to the patients, they will be able to make better informed decisions, she said during her presentation. On the other hand, most of the healthcare industry creates a large amount of data that Google is in a good position to help organize and make available to patients and their families, Mayer, 2007. Google as a mass medium has made the majority of users looking for health information go for it as a search engine. By digitizing health records and giving control over them to the patients, they will be able to make better informed decisions. With health records stored in the Google central server, patients will be able to access them from anywhere, whether they move to a new city or are traveling while on vacation, so that, in an emergency, unfamiliar health care providers can get a comprehensive view of their health history. People would also be able to quickly and easily share records with friends and family if they choose. Conclusion Looking at the events that have unfolded since the year 1996 when Google was developed, it is vivid that Google is out to become stay as the world’s top mass medium. This is evident with the development of something new each and every day of their existence, they are developing software, programmes every day to suite the need of the ever growing audience around the world. Bibliography Google. Google and news Infromation. 2008. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_News (accessed April 14th, 2009). Google Inc. The Importance of Google . 2009. http://www.articlesbase.com/online-promotion-articles/the-importance-of-google-adsense-260370.html (accessed April 15th, 2009). GoogleInc. About Google books search. 2009. http://books.google.co.ke/intl/en/googlebooks/about.html (accessed April 15th, 2009). Newman, Ryan J. The rise of Google. 2005. http://klutchmaster427.wordpress.com/2006/01/05/the-rise-of-google/ (accessed April 14th, 2009). Perez, Juan Carlos. Health Information. 2007. http://www.cio.com/article/147250/Web_._Google_VP_Mayer_Talks_up_Health_Initiative (accessed April 15th, 2009). 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