I like the analogy about my new tablet I used a few days ago. It’s like owning a house in a development that isn’t quite finished yet. The tablet’s ready, but in many cases the infrastructure isn’t. New software is coming out nearly every day, but much of what I use still seems covered with dropcloths and scaffolding.
Today Google made its Chrome browser available for my Android tablet. No one knows why Google built this tablet’s operating system without its premier web browsing tool. The point is now moot.
I installed the browser without reading much of the detail surrounding it. Who does? I didn’t think twice when it loaded the first time and Google asked me to sign in.
Signing in. That is the secret sauce!
As soon as Google knew it was me they linked the browser on my tablet to the browsers on my desktop computers. All my bookmarks are shared. I can even pick up the tablet and find the tabs I have open on the browser on my other computers. I haven’t checked, but it seems likely cookies are shared too.
By connecting all my computers browsing becomes a seamless experience. Work, home, tablet, phone, it’s all the same.
Of course the downside to all this is Google has its tentacles into me even more than before. There is little of my life online it doesn’t have access to. It’s got my email. It’s got my web browsing. It knows what apps I’ve downloaded from its Android Market.
To Google my life’s an open book.
That part’s a little creepy, isn’t it?