Google and the cost of free

Back in 1996 Larry Page and Sergey Brin realised the need of creating a service that classified all the information on the Web in a logical way so that it could be searched quickly when needed. This was the start of one of the most used search engine and one of the biggest companies in the world, Google.

Google now forms part of everyone's life, either as a search engine, mail provider, picture and video platform, as a mobile operating system or as any other service form its never ending list. But, do we really know what we are exposed to when we use any of Google's services? 

Sergey Brin and Larry Page

Page and Brin wanted to offer a service that was free for everyone to use. However, they also had to cover costs so finally they decided that the solution was advertising. Nevertheless, they created a different type of advertising, tailored advertising. Depending on one person's search, ads related to that topic will appear on two sides of Google, at the top and on the right hand side. Whenever a user clicks on these ads Google receives money from advertisers and this is how they make their money.

As shown in the BBC series "The Virtual Revolution" by Dr. Aleks Krotoski, Google controls a lot of information about us. As stated before, with every search we do on its search engine, Google knows our interests and problems; by using Google Maps, Google can know where we live, where we go... and that is not everything! Google even scans your emails if you are using its Gmail service so that it can, again, place some ads related to the content of your emails. 

All this arises the question of how far Google is meddling in our personal privacy. If they keep information about our interests and information contained in our mails such as telephone numbers, addresses and names of friends, and this information is leaked and goes public we can be at a high risk if all these data fall into a stranger's hands.

In the episode "The Cost of Free" from The Virtual Revolution, a journalist of the New York Times could put name to a woman just by putting together the information of her search results. In 2006 AOL had released the search results of thousands of users which were just named by a numerical code. The journalist wanted to prove that even though the users were anonymous they could be identified just by its searches.  

We trust Google when we use its services because we believe we do it privately and anonymously, however, the reality seems to be quite different. Despite Google's ethical codes we are still exposed to some risks when we make use of the services they offer. The concept of privacy has changed in the 21st century but we still have to think how far can these companies interfere in our private lives and whether there should be some kind of regulation as fas as the use of private data is concerned. 

I deeply recommend watching the episode "The cost of free" from the BBC series "The Virtual Revolution". It is worth knowing more about how Google works and what it implies for all of us.

Here you find a clip of one of the episodes of "The Virtual Revolution": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECLBQfLwD0s
A short speech of Google's Director of Communications.

The use of social media for PR purposes

These days everybody is talking about social media and its effect on society. It seems that everything we do now is linked to social media and this is, in a way, true. Social media is affecting our daily life and decisions in a manner that has exceeded all predictions. 

Businesses have also become aware of the importance of social media and have now incorporated it to its communication channels and Public Relations plays an important role as far as the use of social media in a company is concerned. 

The use of social media by corporates started mainly with a marketing purpose in mind but now, they have realised that the use of social media with public relations purposes can benefit the company in an incredible way. 

Public Relations has a huge amount of social media tools at its disposal. These tools can be used to build and promote brand reputation, raise awareness, target a wider audience, interact with them and enable a two-way communication, communicate specific messages to desired stakeholders and receive suggestions from them. These are just some examples of the benefits of social media for a corporate communications use.  

With platforms such as Facebook companies can create fan pages with which they can form a community and interact with it. This way they can inform their audiences more directly as well as listen to their personal opinions. The same happens with Twitter, although it offers the advantage that the message is spread quicker to a wider audience. With YouTube, for instance, the CEO can communicate a message to the company's stakeholders or viral videos can be posted with the purpose of raising awareness; and Linkedin, for example, can help companies to find new employees. 

Letting the message outside and allowing interaction also implies the possibility of receiving criticisms. When this happens, it is essential to answer positively and quickly so that these critics do not get viral and start flooding the company's social media sites. For this reason, it is vital that Public Relations constantly monitor what is been said in social media about the organisations they are working for. 

The following webcast goes through these and oher issues concerning social media and its relation to PR. I hope you enjoy it!

This video is part of an assignment and has an educational purpose. Images have been taken from different sources on the Internet.