Google is like this abominable cousin who used to be called a ‘walking ­encyclopaedia’—it piles on fact over fact to bury ­imagination. It nullifies the experience of age; it dulls the exuberance of youth.

Caesar Sengupta, VP, Next Billion Users and GM of payment at Google, talks to Outlook about the corporation’s work in India and the controversies it is embroiled in.

Google may be the most popular, but it isn’t the only search engine out there. Many other players live up to the tasks that Google might not do for you…

'One had to hunt out information like a Rottweiler, swallow and regurgitate the material as analysis, perspective or narrative. Now Google that if I am wrong.'

Things have changed with the logistics, taxi and home delivery services that have sprung up on the back of Google Maps.

The reference books that graced the tables of doctors until the 1990s have now been replaced with a laptop or desktop; the books have been consigned to libraries, writes Cardiologist Naresh Trehan.

'Perhaps, the ­pre-Google era made for better lawyers ­because we did not have the luxury of short cuts.'

What if Google suddenly ceased to be? What would going back to an older time look like?