Quote to Note: Google and Toddler Gibberish
January 18, 2013
I read “Harper’s Publisher Says Google’s ‘Toddler Gibberish’ Is Driving Us Insane.” Now the question of who is and who is not sane is interesting, just not germane. Here’s the passage I noted:
It’s no coincidence that Google, Yahoo!, Bing, and Yelp sound like toddler gibberish from the Teletubbies… A psychoanalyst friend tells me that listening to baby talk may be gratifying up to a point, but that constant subjection to it produces unconscious rage in adults. This unending assault of babble potentially could lead to revolutionary conditions in which the new writer-teacher proletariat rises up to overthrow the internet oligarchy and the politicians and government agencies who protect it.
I thought Google’s approach to prose was outstanding. Let me cite an example which I quote in my January 2013 column for KMWorld Magazine:
Wherever your followers are, Google+ brings them together and helps you talk with them, via 10 way video Hangouts. You can even stream and record conversations for playback later.
I suppose Harper’s asserts their prose mavens craft better sentences. I think not. Google defines knowledge, value, and reality. Why not prose? Who doesn’t know about “10 way” hangouts. Clueless? Don’t use Google. And which company makes more money? There you go.
Stephen E Arnold, January 18, 2013
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