Googling for Facebook

A desperate attempt by an individual to keep track of all that's happening in the world of technology. L Suresh listens in...

BC: Looks like they finally caught the Google guy.

AD: They caught the who?

BC: That guy who leaked important documents? Can you imagine? First, he creates a website through which we can search for information and then, he leaks it all himself!

AD: Wait a minute! That’s not the Google guy.

BC: He’s not? Oh ok, he’s the guy they made that movie on, right? The guy who reportedly lost all his friends in the process of making a site that helped people make friends?

AD: Mark Zuckerberg? No, it’s not him. He created Facebook. And he didn’t leak documents. He gave us all an opportunity to leak our personal information to the world. Incidentally, where do you get your information from?

BC: I searched for it on Xing.

AD: You mean Bing! Xing is a social networking site for professionals, much like LinkedIn and Viadeo.

BC: Viadeo is that American media giant, right?

AD: No, Viadeo is a professional networking site. You’re confusing them with Viacom, an American media conglomerate.

BC: So what's Bing?

AD: It's a search engine like Google, that helps you find things.

BC: And who owns Bing?

AD: Microsoft bought them over. Now don’t ask me who founded Microsoft.

BC: I know, I know. Bill Gates!

AD: And…?

BC: Steve Jobs?

AD: Here we go again! Steve Jobs is the guy who founded Apple with Steve Wozniak.

BC: But Apple is the Mac company, right?

AD: Whew, yes!

BC: Isn’t that owned by John Sculley?

AD: Sculley was the CEO, but Steve Jobs founded the company.

BC: And Microsoft?

AD: It was founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen. And please don’t mistake him for Tim Allen or Paul Scherz.

BC: Who are they?

AD: It doesn’t matter.

BC: And who owns Google?

AD: It was started by two guys…

BC: Ah, the famous pair! I know them – Jerry Yang and David Filo!

AD: Nope, these were the guys who founded Yahoo!

BC: Speaking of Yahoo!, I just registered on Buzz – I’m trying to locate my friends now.

AD: Er, aren’t you talking about Google Buzz? That’s the networking service. Yahoo! Buzz is about sharing stories and articles with others.

BC: Talking of Google, a friend of mine was telling me about Google’s new smart phone, the Wave, with touch screen and…

AD: You’re getting mixed up again… That is Samsung Wave, a series of edgy phones with social networking features. Google Wave is an online platform that helps you collaborate on various interaction and communication tools.

BC: You were going to mention the guys who created Google…

AD: Oh yeah, Google was the brainchild of Sergey Brin and Larry…

BC: Sanger!

AD: You got the wrong Larry… Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google… Larry Sanger and Jimmy Wales began Wikipedia.

BC: Wikipedia! That’s the company that owns Wikileaks, right?

AD: No, Wikipedia has nothing to do with Wikileaks! And Wikileaks was started by Julian Assange. He’s the guy you were referring to. He was arrested and is now out on bail!

BC: But what did he do to get arrested?

AD: Oh, that’s a long story. If you want to know more, why don’t you just Google him?