Blogs and Stories
Jeff Jarvis Asks: Is Google an Evil Empire?
DB: It’s interesting that an online maven such as yourself penned a book on this subject—it seems a bit counterintuitive.
JJ: Counterintuitive? No, I confess: It's downright hypocritical. If I had followed my own rules—if I had eaten my own dog food—I would have created a digital book that is searchable and linkable, that can be corrected and updated and discussed and passed around. But I took my publisher's advance money. Hey, dog's gotta eat. The book publishing industry still works—for now—because it adds value with editing, promotion, sales, and cash.
I wish that Google would realize its own power in the cause of free speech. Google lives and profits by free speech and must use its considerable power to become a better guardian of it.
DB: There are obvious business models threatened by Google and its brethren, such as the music and newspaper industry. What other industries/businesses face a Google threat and may not even realize it? How can they think more like Google?
JJ: The industries closest to Google—media, advertising, and entertainment—are affected first. But the avalanche that is Google and the internet will overtake all industries and institutions—carmakers, bankers, universities, government—as we undergo a fundamental restructuring of the economy and society. Every industry and institution would be wise to understand the need for handing over control, for transparency, for collaboration and speed.
DB: You write about Google as a model for several businesses and even for government. As President Obama gets underway, what are some key WWGD words of wisdom you can offer him and his incoming administration?
JJ: I would like to see transparency become the default for government: Abolish the Freedom of Information Act so we don't have to ask government for information but government must ask to keep information from us. The more transparent government is, the more collaborative it can become. The more our officials learn to trust us—with information and a role in government—the more we can trust them.
DB: Google famously said it would not be evil. Yet, as you note, Google has not always walked the yellow-brick road in this regard. Since WWGD is your mantra, in what ways are you hopeful that Google will more completely embrace its own idea of not doing evil?
JJ: I wish that Google would realize its own power in the cause of free speech. The debate has been often held about Google's role in acceding to the Chinese government's demands to censor search results. Google says that it is better to have a hampered internet than no internet at all. I believe that if the Chinese people were threatened with no Google, they might even rise up and demand free speech—free search and links—from their regime. Google lives and profits by free speech and must use its considerable power to become a better guardian of it.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Dave Kansas is president of FiLife, a personal-finance joint venture between Dow Jones and IAC Corp. Previously, Kansas was editor of the Wall Street Journal's Money & Investing section and author of The Wall Street Journal's Complete Money & Investing Guidebook.
Google is an amazing search engine and credit should go where credit is due on that front, but the ideologies incorporated have drastically contributed to the dumbing down of information. Their rigid keyword doctrine and specific SEO content that websites have to provide is one of the worst things that has happened on the internet. Much content on the web is written for Google alone. Certainly not for the consumer or reader. When Google addresses and corrects this problem, I'll have more respect for other endeavors they try.
Google didn't invent web search as is implied here -- Yahoo! and others were in the games years ahead of them -- they innovated search by ranking by a page's popularity instead of by the amount of relevant keywords (trust me Apparently, the other way *really* had a bad effect on content).
I haven't read the book but given what is stated here isn't Wikipedia is the better role model for what is being described as the model culture of democracy, transparency, innovation, stewardship and responsiveness? Google is more economically powerful, maybe that's what is so intriguing to the author really?
If so, I think there needs to be a newer and deeper look at Google.
As the heady days of "we make money hand over fist no matter what we do" are disappearing Google is acting more and more like a regular corporate culture. They're a difficult company to work with: finding someone in charge (enough) to make a decision is a real challenge; they are pretty arrogant and dismissive about ideas that don't come from within and by the way, that 20% time on innovation rule fell by the wayside a long time ago as the economy soured. Check out their response to the public that didn't 'get' their new iGoogle design: clearly the people needed to be told they just don't get a better experience and need to adjust to Google's superior thinking. http://www.google.com/help/ig/tour/
The two people in charge are frequently...missing. Although the rumor is they've issued the mandate to employees focus on creating more revenue.
Given the lack of strong leadership where morality has to be role-modeled and yes, mandated, with a great deal of influence on society and the new and humanly familiar pressure to make more money Google is set up to possibly do something really...wrong.
This interview is fascinating as I'm sure the book is. I intend to purchase the book as soon as I get an advance on my book. What a delicious irony! Google is literally changing business and education models at light speed and will become a victim of their own success. The reason- large organizations inexorably become bureaucratic. The herd animal instinct still influences the human species decision-making process (it's a security thing) but the greatest impact of the Internet is its diffusion of the herd.
Keep it coming TDB. I'm totally addicted. Have you thought of adding a rehab tab?
lol no click here lol
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