This Jetpack heat map shows the 152 countries from which users have visited owenyoungman.com since I began teaching through Coursera.
For me the most fascinating part of teaching a massively open online course is coming into contact with so many motivated learners from around the world — or, more properly, interacting with them as they share their perspectives on the questions raised in the readings, video lectures, and forums.
As the second session of “Understanding Media by Understanding Google” got underway with (so far) about 31,000 students from 168 countries, I presented this question in the Coursera discussion forums as part of beginning the group exploration:
Early in Siva Vaidhyanathan’s book, The Googlization of Everything, he notes that skepticism and suspicion of Google’s motives seems higher in Europe and other parts of the world than in the United States. What do you find to be true in your own country?
The comments that follow, culled from the first 165 that were posted in response, have been lightly edited for concision.
I dare say that the majority of Singaporeans, Google has become an indispensable tool that it is impossible to imagine how the people here will function without it.
As a Croatian, I must say the majority of people see Google just like what you are describing for Singapore.
Yandex is the main search engine in Russia with a search share of 64% by searches. The key to success was the Russian language, which has a sophisticated morphology. Historically in Russia Google has been considered the search engine for the geek audience, otherwise, Yandex was something like the searcher for “housewives.” Just stereotypes, but extremely popular. But now the audiences are the same regarding the quality and features, not the size. Only a minority in Russia think about privacy. Most people do not know enough about technologies and opportunities of big data.
Overall I think our experience in Australia is similar to the US. Aussies love to shoot down a tall poppy, but Google is an intrinsic part of our web experience here, so all is forgiven.
I am from India. Google is still in its honeymoon period here. People value it, adore it, they are excited about it and most importantly they trust it. This is mainly because the benefits that they get from Google are far more evident and visible than the information that Google is extracting from them.
Which, as in the premise of the question, reflects the views of many Americans:
Americans, and I can only really speak for southern Californians because that’s where I live, live very fast-paced lives and demand instant answers to most of their problems and Google offers that . . . I think it’s that need for efficiency and dependence on technology that makes us (our society) willing to ignore any possible downsides.
The people I know (US, Ohio) seem much more suspicious of Facebook than they do of Google. I think many don’t realize (certainly I didn’t until I started doing some of the assigned readings) just how much information Google can collect about you. I know people who refuse to be on Facebook but don’t think twice about using Google or their Android phone . . . In my opinion, Europe is leading the way on questioning Google. Would they be as concerned if it was a European country rather than American?
How about that, Europe?
It has nothing to do with Google being American. There is a long tradition in Europe that favors more matters of state regulation and privacy — that’s why, for instance, we don’t care as much about our politicians’ private lives and beliefs.
Even though I agree that people would be as concerned if Google was a European company, I also do believe it has something to do with it. Google is shaping the Internet and its use to become the “way of Google,” because it is, in their beliefs, the best way. This is a reflection of an American company (at least to some level).
And then there’s China. About 8% of the students overall are from the mainland, and a number of them have already weighed in.
Although Google search is not accessible in China, people here still use some other services/products, such as Chrome, Google Play, Google maps etc. In the eyes of Chinese media Google is a great company: it has lots of innovative and crazy ideas which lead the market. In a word, Google enjoys a much better reputation in China than the local search engine, Baidu.
In China Google can be substituted by Baidu, and in my perspective Baidu is more convenient. But it can’t be denied that we all acknowledge Google is great!
Technically, Google’s not banned; it’s censored. We sometimes view Google as a big irony because we can actually see the links of Google Docs and YouTube and likewise, the website of New York Times, but instantly get disconnected when we click them. We don’t know what links are ‘dangerous’, and therefore whoever here using Google has to face the fate of being disconnected abruptly. In China, the world of Google is a parallel world with the world of Baidu; for me, no one should ever forget and neglect that parallel world of Google, which brings far more possibilities and opportunities.
Possibilities, and opportunities, and perhaps even a family relationship. Here’s where we’ll end.
In my country (Indonesia), if you want an answer of your question, then go ask “Mbah Google” or “Grandpa Google.”
A funny language coincidence. In Poland we say “wujek Google” which means “uncle Google.”
Very true, in India we call it Google baba . . . baba is a word used to refer to someone who is a guru and knows everything.
Now that I think of it here in Brazil I have heard some people call Google the “Pai dos Burros” or “Dumb’s father.” The dictionary was the old “Pai dos Burros”; now, since Google has the answer for everything, it is the new “Father of the Dumb.”
Actually, we won’t be reading Nicholas Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” until Week 5.