So the examination of Google's relations with China seems to be continuing today, with the print media catching up with yesterday's BBC News page and the bloggers (see Paul Robert's thoughtful piece).
But there's also today's much longer exploratory article in the Guardian, by John Lanchester, entitled Engine trouble.
It ends with this warning paragrah, which I'm not sure is either apocalyptic or hopeful:
"Technologically, Google is an amazing thing. As for whether it is a good thing, that depends on what happens next. ... Google is cool. But Google also has the potential to destroy the publishing industry, the newspaper business, high street retailing and our privacy. Not that it will necessarily do any of these things, but for the first time, considered soberly, these things are technologically possible. The company is rich and determined and is not going away any time soon. It knows what it is doing technologically; socially, though, it can't possibly know, and I don't think anyone else can either. The best historical analogy for where Google is today probably comes from the time when the railroads were being built. Everyone knew that trains and railways would change the world, but no one predicted the invention of suburbs. Google, and the increased flow of information on which it rides and from which it benefits, is the railway. I don't think we've yet seen the first suburbs."
No comments:
Post a Comment