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Google Developing Database Service
QuantumT writes "Ars Technica has the details on the unannounced Google
Base service that will allow anyone with a Google Account to post information and other types of data into a massive, Google-run database. Ars believes that the company is
gearing up to take on eBay and Craiglist, which makes sense given the Google Payment service that is in development. Google has commented, saying, 'This is an early-stage test of a
product that enables content owners to easily send their content to Google. Like our web crawl and the recently released Google Sitemaps program, we are working to provide content
owners an easy way to give us access to their content.' There's a few screenshots as well."
Perhaps more importantly, this move positions Google as potentially the pre-eminent publishing house with an inherent built in search engine. Anything that goes into the database will be "intimately" searchable. From my perspective as a bioscientist, the ability to be able to search journal articles not just for text, but also for image data or graph data would be absolutely huge.
Google has previously posted their position about Google Print here where they documented superficially their desire to enable people to search for "books". However, more importantly, it is the content within the "books" that will become more ubiquitous and more available.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
base.google.com pictures
Why would I want to put my information under your control?
Now you just need to figure out how to marshall data into canonical fields for each major use scenario, mark those schemas prominently for easy reference, and police the system against abuse like spam, scams and plagarism.
Judging by the state of your core search system, this will take anywhere from seven years to several centuries.
Google may not be aiming to become Big Brother, but they're certainly aiming to provide every single service they possibly can. Why they would do this is a pretty simple question to answer. They make most of their money through advertising, yes? And to make even more money off of said advertising, they sell data to advertisers, yes? The more services they provide, the more users they rope in, and the more - and more kinds of - data they collect to sell or use to their advantage as a business. Their business model thus far has proven to be virtually flawless and extremely profitable.
However, it is becoming apparent to me that they have other aims. Google is no longer the friendly, ethical being it once was. It has begun to evolve into something sinister. Google is expanding so rapidly and absorbing so much mindshare, both by raiding Silicon Valley and by garnering support from the Open Source community, that they now have the money and the human resources to do anything. Additionally, they can undercut any competitor, and they will. Expect to see these in the future:
* A Google ISP with free or extremely cheap connectivity worldwide.
* Google Phone, likely as a form of VoIP.
* Google TV, both on and offline, cable and wireless.
* Google Radio, both on and offline.
* Google Web Hosting.
* A Google ASP, providing applications on demand.
* Google Publishing, publishing digital content on demand.
* A Google record label.
* A Google printing service, printing books and newspapers on demand.
And much, much more.
This all sounds great, but the thing is, Google is poised to strike out at virtually every industry in the world that has anything to do with the transmission and distribution of any kind of information. They are going to be more than the 'Next Microsoft', as some here have put it. This will be a supermassive media monopoly; a black hole of information services from which noone can escape, with which noone can compete. They claim to support openness, but that only goes as far as what software and hardware you can use to access their services. In short order, they will be the only service providers around in many, many fields. That, in my opinion, is worse than not having a choice of how I utilize said services.
Call me a senseless fearmonger, but they really have their ducks in a row, don't they? The Authors Guild lawsuit aside, they're ready to go. They're getting ready to do some really huge things, at that, and in executing their plans, they could completely dominate the entire media and telecommunications industries within a matter of a few short years by simply undercutting all of their competitors with extremely cheap or free services, with the sale of valuable information - not subscriptions - as their bread and butter. It's possible, and they're proving that it is also feasable, and very profitable... but only if you're Google. I'm sorry, but replacing a few heaping handfuls of ugly monopolies around the world with one gigantic, unstoppable global monopoly is not a good idea, even if it's Google.
Let's not forget that the path to Hell is paved with good intentions. If Google does what I anticipate they will do, billions of dollars will be lost, thousands and thousands of people will be without jobs, and worst of all, we will all be forced to rely upon one single entity for many services essential in our day to day lives. That is always a very dangerous situation to be in. One can hope that the heads of Google are actually more sensible and less power hungry than this, and know when to stop. Alas, the word 'stop' does not appear to be indexed in Google's vocabulary. We all may be in for one very bumpy ride.