Google Goes To College

Google’s inexorable march toward world domination continues. It’s moved into the university market, and institutions are switching their e-mail services to Google.   The latest is Ireland’s venerable Trinity College in Dublin, where the entire e-mail network is being replaced by Google’s system. Although there will be no changes on the surface, with the e-mail addresses and domain name remaining exactly as they were, the engine will be Google. The idea, says the search engine giant, is to develop a long-term relationship with students, who will be able to continue using their e-mail addresses after graduation, a major change from the present system.   Arizona State has already adopted the Google system, as has Linköpings University in Sweden, along with colleges in Africa, with several others in the U.S. and Europe reportedly considering switching.   However, the e-mail change is just the tip of the iceberg. The package includes free online tools – powered by Google, of course –  allowing students to access files from any Internet connection, anywhere, making collaborative work in real-time much easier.   Although there was debate about privacy issues at Trinity (the announcement came just as a report ranked Google worst on privacy), but Director of Information Systems, Michael Nowlan, said,   “The digital natives will find their own way, make their own discoveries.”