No, the world does not end!! But, if I go by my twitter feed a google outage might be a sign that the world might be coming to an end. BTW, if you did not know Google just had a major outage and pretty much all services were down including the search engine Google.com. Google services are now back atleast for me!!
Wonder what chaos ensues when Google goes down!! The current outage might have been a minor one but lets see what happens when google goes down!
What happens when Google Goes Down?
Chances are you hear it first on Twitter or if you are a software developer like I was in my past avatar, you realize your work comes to a standstill. Bad jokes apart, panic sets in as the digitarti discovers that Google services they rely on so badly is not accessible. Think Google Search, Google Mail / Apps, Google Docs and a range of Google services used widely by people.
Here is a list of things that can happen when Google Goes Down
- Twitter goes down as well. Well, more like folks tweeting "Is Google Down" and others responding with "Yes, Here As Well" set off a chain reaction and the virality of Twitter becomes its Achilles heel and you are hit by a #failwhale. Ouch!
- Coders and IT Managers Get Frantic. It might be self-deprecating but it is true. Thousands of coders working in software companies are hit by a sudden realization that they have lost their coding skills all of a sudden. No google means there is no search and that means there is no easy way to find out what is the solution to the darn bug you are getting.
IT Managers on the other hand being the considerate type they are, realize the obvious hindrance and start thinking of way to push the deliverable deadline. God forbid, if Google goes down for more than a day or two they will have no answer as to why no work is getting done - People discover something called ‘Bing’ exists. Oh yeah! Microsoft’s awesome search engine ‘Bing’ that never seems to give me decent search results, ever. If Google goes out for a full day, expect a press release with the title ‘Bing traffic explodes, Microsoft’s investments paying off’
- Google Announces It’s Time To Materialize Its Evil Plans. Unlikely and scary, but imagine Google decides that the ‘Free’ era is over and announces the outage was an intended move. Anyone who wants to access Google services now needs to give an arm and a leg to be able to use Google’s services or it is over. I cant imagine a headline saying ‘Google’s World Domination Has Begun’
- Robert Scoble Is Not Able to Bash Twitter, On Google+. Well, if you have been active on Google+ you will know what I am talking about. With Google services down, where will Robert Scoble diss twitter and the fact that Twitter is not innovating at all
On a more serious note, there is no denying our dependence on Google. Privacy issues and monopolistic strategy notwithstanding, Google has its users by the hook across a majority of its services. For me, a twitter outage itself makes me realize that something is missing so imagine what Google outage means.
Do share your thoughts on what can happen when Google goes down? How does it affect you.
PS: This was my not-so-good attempt at writing a humor style post. My intention was not to malign any brand or individual