Google: Now a Danger Asserts eCommerce Times
April 14, 2009
How times have changed since the economic collapse. Rob Enderle (TechNewsWorld, part of the ECT News Network) wrote “Could Google Be the Most Dangerous Company in the World?” You can read the story here. The gist of the story is that Google has a lot of power. Okay, good catch. A little late because the fans have left the stadium and the lights are out but the observation is on target. Mr. Enderle wrote:
Google likely should be regulated to make sure it behaves properly to protect the innocent. Or, put another way, just because Google is the leading source on how to commit suicide doesn’t mean it should become the leading cause of it. Shouldn’t the financial industry serve as an example of what can happen if power, morals and ethics aren’t kept in sync?
Ah, a call to regulate Google. I wonder if those on this bandwagon have tried to explain a technical subject to a regulatory group in the US or UK? Folks–after a decade–are just now starting to grasp that the GOOG is a different kettle of fish from your run of the mill online search vendor like Ask.com or Microsoft’s Live.com.
Mr. Enderle continued:
Any company that through omission or overt action puts people at risk is evil. It may offset that evil with lots of good works — and certainly Google does that — but its potential for evil is unprecedented in private industry. The question is whether government will respond to the threat before it becomes a reality, or wait until it’s too late to even see that the threat exists? Google has unprecedented power; we are seeing the firm slowly corrupted by it. For the Obama administration, this may be the test of whether it can do more than deal with problems it has inherited, and prevent problems from happening in the first place.
I like the “unprecedented”. I am delighted Mr. Enderle has raised this issue. I don’t think that Google is much different from the pre break up AT&T or the “old” ITT. There are some important differences, which I try to explicate in Google: The Digital Gutenberg here. The big difference is that in a lousy economy the likelihood of another firm matching Google’s investment in technology and infrastructure quickly is low. I do believe that:
- Google is a different industry construct. It is not an intermediating entity. Google rolls up multiple functions that hitherto were separate. Think of a digital River Rouge.
- Google responds to customer behavior; therefore, predicting the direction in which Google will flow is difficult.
- Google moves forward without significant push back because it is polymorphic.
Oh, one more thing: Google has been chugging away for a decade. The train has left the station, and it may or may not return. The traditional media and telecommunications industries are discovering that they have to follow, not wait. Life would be wonderful if woulda, coulda, shoulda actually operated reliably.
Stephen Arnold, April 14, 2009
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