Google's takeover, one function at a time

Way back when, someone postulated about the future of the media, they dubbed, "Epic" HERE, in which Google, and not Microsoft, became the convergent force that brought the collection and distribution of information into one outlet.

While I thought it was a very novel idea and was skeptical how far Google's influence could be, it seems my skepticism is being whittled away.

Google News, Gmail, Google Scholar were the latest addition I had heard of, and there were rumblings of Google working on its own browser, especially when they hired away one of Mozilla's developer.

Now comes Google Maps (courtesy Matthew Yglesias), a map function ala Mapquest. It's still in the beta phase and while earlier attempts proved...not so successful, tonight's test run of their directions function from Newmarket to Kingston (the more accurate address, the better) provided pretty good directions. Suggestions for us Canucks in the north: have the ability to change from miles to kilometres. Not a big deal, but I'm a metric man m'self. Love those 1's and 0's.

And now, I await the next Google takeover: Google Travel Agent. Trip planning and flight-booking wherever you need to go...