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Google's Gatekeepers
theodp writes "With control of 63% of the world's Internet searches, as well as ownership of YouTube, the NY Times reports that Google is the most powerful and protean of the Internet gatekeepers, exerting enormous influence over who can find an audience on the Web around the world. Deciding what controversial material does and doesn't appear on the local search engines Google maintains in many countries — as well as on Google.com, YouTube, Blogger, Picasa, and Orkut — falls on the shoulders of Nicole Wong and her colleagues, who have arguably been given more influence over online expression than anyone else on the planet. Some find Google's gatekeeper role worrisome: 'If your whole game is to increase market share,' says Lawrence Lessig, 'it's hard to do good, and to gather data in ways that don't raise privacy concerns or that might help repressive governments to block controversial content.'"
Why is this news? Not that I agree with their political message, but World Net Daily (wnd.com) has been on the receiving end of Google's actions for a while now, supposedly due to political motives; so yes, this should worry anyone interested in free and open access to information.
..Google does it still pretty well.
There are much worse scenarios imaginable, which I'll leave as an exercise for the reader.
By saying this I don't want to bless all the problematic things that are happening, and it's certainly always helpful to "watch back", but we could be already living in an information nightmare already, which we aren't thanks, in part, to Google: If some other big company would have as big a share as Google, I wonder how they'd behave (don't mod me as troll please, it's just to show that we're still doing quite well.)
Power corrupts the few, while weakness corrupts the many.
So what is the big deal? Google censors some things, don't like it? Go to one of the thousands of other search engines. The thing about search engines is there is almost no learning curve and its incredibly easy to switch, want to use Yahoo? Just type in Yahoo rather than Google. Replace Yahoo for whatever search engine you want. If people really think that Google's censorship policies are bad for the internet the internet will switch to another search engine or create their own. The internet evolves fast, 10 years ago we didn't use Google we used other search engines, 10 years from now we probably won't use Google, we will use something else. Can't wait 10 years? Just go to a different search engine. Seriously, censorship is bad but this is the internet, not the government-regulated airspace, there is no FCC, it is global.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Obviously it would take a high degree of coordination and skill but an electronic attack could take them out for awhile. It's been done before to large companies. My only point is that google is an attractive target for a great many political interests both domestically and abroad.
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I use Google for searches, but I could easily switch to Yahoo, AltaVista or even MSN.
Until Google start doing things to stop people using other search engines, there's no problem. If people object to the dominance of Google, they must either campaign for users to move to other engines, or create a better engine and gain marketshare.
A large fraction of the employees work at a single location in Mountain View, CA.
It's not that difficult to script a search that checks multiple search engines to see if the same items appear. There are folks who do that. Comparing Google to other search engines is a business function these days. I don't think that Google could go too far out on a limb with modifying or restricting information without some complaints.
When you are as Big as Google, yes, there will be complaints. You can't please everyone all of the time. That said, I've not yet heard of Google outright doing evil.
Knowing the Bush administration and spy types in general, it's quite likely that there have been instances of co-operation, if not ongoing situations. The trouble is that given the size of Google and other Internet services providers it is not likely that there will be NO government co-operative instances. The thing to work at is keeping such things minimal and transparent/above board.
So far, Google has been good for the world. I'm not saying it will always be so, so it is good that people are watching them.
Support NYCountryLawyer RIAA vs People
Are you referring to US vs. Microsoft in 1998-1999? That was with regard to Internet Explorer, not the Windows OS. Microsoft lost, and they are paying their due penalty.
Google, on the other hand, has a much larger monopoly not just on search advertising but on information availability. Your bitter dislike of Microsoft is blinding you apparently; you'd rather fight over small fries like what browser you want use rather than fight over where you can find information and who controls it.
Try reading the newspapers, or even searching Google for 'google censorship in China'. The top of the search shows the BBC article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4645596.stm.
So, in fact, China censors 'illegal material' which is a violation of UN treaties to censor in international communications. The idea of 'do no harm' is not good enough for such a large and powerful company: the idea of 'do no harm in China' by not bothering their government is in direct contrast to 'do no harm in China' by restricting the speech of those who disagree with the government.
That's assuming the Chinese are allowed to disagree with their government.
Your ad here.
Google has prevented me from using Yahoo!, Ask, etc. in the same vein that Microsoft prevented me from using other web browsers.
Does Google somehow physically stop me from using other search engines? No. Did Microsoft physically stop me from downloading and using other browsers? No.
Does Google very closely bundle their search engine with Google Docs, YouTube, Android, etc.? Yes. Did Microsoft very closely bundle IE with Windows? Yes.
Is Google being punished for doing the same exact same thing Microsoft was found guilty of in US vs. Microsoft in 1999? No.
Before internet, the gatekeepers to information were powers like NY Time.
90% of the people in this country will tell you that www.annabelleigh.net crosses the line. I'm guessing over 50% will have a strong reaction against it and would prefer that Google make sure it doesn't come up in their search results. So, you can see it as Google repressing a very small portion of the population, or you can see it as Google's doing the rest of us a big favor.
So, you can see it as Google repressing a very small portion of the population, or you can see it as Google's doing the rest of us a big favor.
Isn't that the standard definition of repression? Mistreat one group for the benefit, sometimes completely intangible benefit, of another?
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
"90% of the people in this country will tell you that www.annabelleigh.net crosses the line. I'm guessing over 50% will have a strong reaction against it and would prefer that Google make sure it doesn't come up in their search results."
It doesn't cross a legal line, so presumably you are referrring to a "moral" line. When you begin to moralise the internet, who can say where or when the resultant censorship will end?
"So, you can see it as Google repressing a very small portion of the population, or you can see it as Google's doing the rest of us a big favor."
Google is not doing a "big favor" for anyone. Censoring controversial material doesn't help readers; it simply makes them ignorant.
"To the future or to the past, to a time when thought is free" ~ Nineteen Eighty-Four
Why is it up to Google to do the work of the United Nations?
Google is a company just like any other, they have to operate within the law wherever they operate.
Not censoring a youtube video almost had Google employees arrested in Thailand until the bowed to pressure and deleted the lamest movie on YT with like 20 views. Governments have Google by the balls not the other way around.
I suggest you reassess your opinion of how much influence Google holds over governments because you'll find it's almost nothing, if any at all.
Or maybe the hackers in the US are smart enough to not get caught in the first place. The best hacker in the world is someone nobody's heard of. You know, as long as we're doing conspiracy theory, we might as well make it sound good.... ;)
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