Washington Post Riffles Google Books
August 10, 2009
First, the source: the Washington Post. A traditional newspaper. Presumably the Washington Post is aware that Google has become the poster child of the network-centric world in which traditional media must operate. Second, the Google: a company that has destabilized Yahoo, annoyed telecommunications executives, and operates by playing three D chess in a world happier with Tic Tac Toe.
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The editorial “Google’s Fine Print” identifies one of Google’s chess moves in a Tic Tac Toe world. Traditional media want the game to be Tic Tac Toe. There is an elegance to it and the business model predicated on taking intellectual outputs, putting them on paper, selling ads, and charging enough money to build information empires like those enjoyed by William Randolph Hurst, among others.
The problem, however, is that in order to win at Google’s game, the folks on the other sides of the 3 D chess board have to know what game is being played. Google has been grinding away at indexing and archiving information for quite a while. The Books interest kicked in a year or so before Google hired a wizard and Caere executive to move the Google parade toward books.
Then Google invoked fair use and started digitizing with some partners who were sufficiently Googley to figure out that playing Google’s game was a reasonable undertaking. Folks objected. Google negotiated. A deal emerged. Now, after the fact, the Tic Tac Toe crowd wants to play their game.
I have written many times that dealing with Google requires a different understanding. The traditional media are one group of Google contestants lagging in the game playing expertise. Keep in mind that Google is an “as is” outfit. The Tic Tac Toe crowd is working on the “to be” scenario. Publishing will be in the same two person raft as Microsoft and Yahoo. That craft is not going to close the gap, let along leapfrog the Google.
Let me think. Google said it would index the world’s information 11 years ago. Since that time, Google has been playing its game of 3 D chess. Now more than a decade later, the Washington Post wants to play Tic Tac Toe. Well, maybe the lawyers will pull off the Greek deus ex cathedra play. Will that change the fact that no other entity can do what Google is doing to preserve and make accessible books and research information. A national library? Right, good luck with that one. How about a commercial database company? Fat chance. Some of thsee outfits would sell out to Google in a Kentucky Derby minute so the lawyers and accountants who run these information sweat shops can buy a house in France.
Tell me how wrong I am. Just keep the “as is”, the signed deal, and the available archive in mind. “To be” arguments will not hold the addled goose’s attention. The Christian Science Monitor has weighed in as well.
Stephen Arnold, August 10, 2009
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