Stopping Google / With one company now the world's chief gateway to information, some critics are hatching ways to fight its influence

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Monty Solomon <monty () roscom com>
Date: November 29, 2008 8:31:26 PM EST
To: undisclosed-recipient:;
Subject: Stopping Google / With one company now the world's chief  
gateway to information, some critics are hatching ways to fight its  
influence


Stopping Google

With one company now the world's chief gateway to information, some
critics are hatching ways to fight its influence

By Drake Bennett  |  June 22, 2008

GOOGLE MAY BE widely admired for its technical wizardry and its
quick, accurate search engine, but one of the company's most
impressive accomplishments has been its ability to grow as powerful
as it is while still remaining, in the minds of most Americans,
fundamentally likable.

The company today is a behemoth, with more than 15,000 employees and
a market value as big as Coca-Cola and Boeing combined. Its search
engine is the tool of first resort for expert researchers and
schoolkids alike; for suspicious employers, first-daters, long-lost
friends, blackmailers, reporters, and police investigators - in
short, for seekers of any and all sorts of information. In April, the
most recent month for which it compiled statistics, Nielsen Online
found that 62 percent of all US Internet searches were done using
Google. Yahoo, the next largest player, had only 17.5 percent of the
market.

Despite its size and dominance, Google has avoided the public
suspicion and vilification that have plagued powerful companies from
Standard Oil to Microsoft. Instead, protected by its reputation for
innovation, its famed "Don't Be Evil" mantra, and the ever-improving
precision of its search engine, Google has remained for the most part
a trusted, even a beloved, brand.

But as Google's influence grows, a number of scholars and programmers
have begun to argue that the company is acquiring too much power over
our lives - invading our privacy, shaping our preferences, and
controlling how we learn about and understand the world around us. To
counter its pervasive effects, they are developing strategies to push
back against Google, dilute its growing dominance of the information
sphere, and make it more publicly accountable. The solutions range
from programs one can install on one's computer to proposed laws
forcing Google to reveal parts of its proprietary search algorithm. A
few experts and privacy activists are pushing for public funding for
alternative search technologies, and one legal scholar wants to give
individuals and companies a "right of reply" when searches bring up
sites that slander them or appropriate their intellectual property.

...

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/06/22/stopping_google/




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