Googley Goo

Google is an interesting company and success story but how long is it until they are hated like Microsoft? The IPO was a huge step for Google, one that shows how grown up they are in keeping successful since. The strides they've made in online advertising by making ads a quantifiable investment are brilliant. I also appreciate labeling the ads as ads and killing the annoying banners.

However, I see weaknesses in finding verifiable, factual information and the paleness of a Google Scholar to a Lexis-Nexis. Perhaps these apps will overtake their predecessors some day, leaving them all obsolete and cornering the information market in enormous Google data centers, which is an idea I'm still somewhat cloudy about, no pun intended. 

Carlson talks about Google as a gatekeeper of news which has social and ethical ramifications but also acts poor in function as a computer editor. I've looked for news on the Minnesota bridge collapse to have articles from China and the BBC pop up first. What about a Minnesota paper, huh?

Three authors pen a story about search engines rewriting the past and the concern over web manipulation-see China. This is a major issue when it comes to dealing with or not dealing with government censorship. I cannot condone Yahoo! assisting to put a journalist in jail for 10 years and Google allowing the government to manipulate speech (depending on Google's interests). Boo that Google, I don't care about the lame excuses! 

The Pew research shows a real lack of basic understanding of search engines and an expected rise in Internet usage in the U.S. The differences between men and women were mostly inconsequential but may help marketers pitch their products more effectively. 

As for the future, I can see the various apps making the web very complex and absolutely enormous, changing the face of education and technology. And yes, we need to keep the net neutral! Now, if I can sit on my soapbox for a second. Despite Google's claims to 'not be evil,' they are looked at as a monopoly more and more. 

This can happen when you become a publicly traded commodity, a step that Bagdikian claims caused the collapse and worth of our media, which was supposed to provide us with the best information for an informed citizenry-also see healthcare for an industry that was a public good turned profit machine that doesn't do so well in helping the general public. While the tech industry is different and can't be pigeonholed in the same way as the former and latter, it will be interesting to see how they can keep a positive image and revolutionary results. And on a global scale, at that.