Siva Vaidhyanathan on The Googlization of Everything

The Internet is not as wild and ungoverned as we might have naively assumed back at its conception. But overall, no single state, firm, or institution in the world has as much power over Web-based activity as Google does. Is Google's dominance the best situation for the future of our information ecosystem?

Siva Vaidhyanathan — professor of media studies at the University of Virginia — discusses key points from his most recent book "The Googlization of Everything (and Why We Should Be Worried)."
See the original event post here: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/events/2011/02/vaidhyanathan

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Education

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• 2011
• 02
• 25
• siva640

[Wizartar]

@Wizartar Google Maps is a great utility, living in Ireland I was able to go out to Detroit learn the local landmarks of where my hotel was and along with Sat-Nav found my destination with ease. Not even 10 years this would've been trying to follow direction & road sign. A gun is a force for good or evil, Knowledge is the same. Google is an index to knowledge, if we don't find what we want we'll change search provider. Google sees what's in our minds unlike other media, it can be scary to share

[Wizartar]

@Wizartar Money is life, people first think with what's in their pocket then their head. It's just another form of donation to a "good cause", except you're trusting the company to do the right thing.

As for Google, it's all about results, Google still returns very good results for what I'm looking for. The best thing Google has done in a long time is a plugin with automatically drop result from domains on an ignore list. If they mine this ignore list then it helps web out the junk links.

[Wizartar]

The Market is the people with the money. The Ethical Value of a Company is a feedback loop from the Market. If people all want red cars then more red cars will be made. If people only choice to spend money on products because of a Company's Ethical Value, Ethical Value is just another form of Marketing to get customers. Ethics is a luxury afforded to us through having more then we need, so can spend an extra $5 on a product because of the company's value system. The poor don't have this choice.