In Google we trust – but should we?

A question increasingly asked is whether Google is becoming a dangerous monopoly. It is a very serious question. If we end up with one company controlling search – the gateway to information – it could be catastrophic if it abused its position. Google is already technically a monopoly with nearly 70% of US search and as much as 90% in the UK on some surveys. But it is highly unusual for two reasons. First, it lacks the typical symptom – charging excessively for its products. Nearly all of Google’s products from search to document storage are free. What kind of monopoly is that?

May 23, 2008 by Uncategorized 2

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2 Responses

  1. Eric Waldman says:
    May 23, 2008 at 4:34 pm

    Should we be surprised?
    I am personally not surprised by Google’s actions that appear to be at odds with its professed behavior model of “Don’t be evil.”
    http://investor.google.com/conduct.html.
    As long as Google was a private company, answerable only to Sergei Brin and Larry Page, they could be as ethical as they wanted to be without much financial repercussions.

    However, once they went public, Google became answerable, in increasing part, to its shareholders and vulnerable to the demands of three primary Corporate ideologies. First and foremost, make a profit – the more the better. Second, promise and deliver consistent, increasing earnings. Third, increase market penetration and control/dominance.

    Only a fool would not recognize Google’s slow and inexorable pull towards these corporate ideas, albeit slowly, as time passes. This helps to explain why Google keeps seemingly going against its mantra by continually giving China what it wants in the way of censorship, control of information and distribution thereof. It also helps to explain why privacy is increasingly moving from a nagging feeling in the minds of many to a genuine concern about how the hens of their search habits could ultimately come home to roost:
    http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2006-02-09-google-privacy_x.htm
    http://www.google-watch.org/gmail.html
    http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/01/technology/01private.html
    http://www.webpronews.com/blogtalk/2007/05/02/google-privacy-concerns

    The fact the Sergei and Larry have their “Don’t be evil” mantra as a guiding principle does mitigate Google’s (evil?) behavior somewhat at this time, but it can only go so far – and for so long. Once Larry and/or Sergei depart it will be, in part, a matter of how well their values have been instilled in the Board, upper level management and the shareholders.

    As Reagan said, “Trust, but Verify.”
    A bit of prudent regulation wouldn’t hurt either.

    Reply
  2. Heather says:
    June 1, 2008 at 3:29 am

    There is much to think about
    There is much to think about regarding Google’s domination of the search market and their increasing in-roads in other areas. Google books in particular makes me unsure. See my review of Jean-Noel Jeanneny’s “Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge”. http://shelftalk.spl.org/2008/05/31/google-an-engine-of-cultural-domination/
    We need to think about the amount of trust we put into any one media outlet/information company/advertising sales engine.

    Reply

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