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Dvorak on Google and Wikipedia
cryptoluddite writes "PC Magazine has an article by John C. Dvorak expanding on the community discussion of Google's offer for free web hosting of Wikipedia. Those against the deal point out that Google may be planning to co-opt the encyclopedia as Googlepedia (by restricting access to the complete database). In a revealing speech given by the Google founders, Larry Page says he would 'like to see a model where you can buy into the world's content. Let's say you pay $20 per month.' Should public domain information be free?" It's a pretty scary scenario painted, but one can hardly take a speech from 2001 as serious evidence these days. Update: 02/16 20:16 GMT by T : This story links inadvertently to the second page of the column; here's a link to the first page.
back in the 80's, He hasn't been that smart or up to date since.
I wouldn't take anything he says too seriously.
Just three more hours seapeople and you can finally take me away from this crappy God Damned planet full of hippies
For free
For now.
Forgive me, but I am a sceptic wherever big american corporations and the word "free" are used in conjunction with each other.
If I could be bothered to find you in 5 year's time, I'd put money on me being able to say "told you so".
I see Google as one of the most worrisome longterm threats to the internet, and the "$20 per month" content fee comment is exactly why. I think Google intents to be the conduit through which every user accesses data over the internet with plans to profit by charging subscription fees, selling marketing data and doing targeted advertising.
Personally I see Google as a bigger threat than MS. MS sells a product which you can use or not use. Google plans on control of information.
The whole thing leaves a bad taste.