More Google Book Push Back
February 18, 2010
My position on Google Books is that when this project is dead, no one will scan books. Sure, there will be fragmented collections like those available from the commercial database publishers and some folks with time on their hands at various national libraries. But the big idea is pretty much dead unless some extra terrestrial action occurs. Where lawyers are concerned, extra terrestrial actions are not unknown. I still can hear “If the glove don’t fit, you must acquit.”
You may want to take a look at some interesting push back regarding the Google Book project in the TechCrunch write up “Gary Reback: Why the Technology Sector Should Care about Google Books.” There are quite a few interesting factoids in the write up; for example:
Once upon a time, Google claimed it employed neutral, mathematically-based algorithms to prioritize search in ad listings. But last November Google admitted to the Washington Post that only search results from Google’s content competitors are listed according to neutral algorithms. Search results from Google’s own properties, like maps, news and books, are now listed first, the algorithm notwithstanding. Even more recently Google admitted that it changes the rank ordering of paid search ads to prioritize its own company messages.
Yep, the hybrid approach to content processing where human data and that generated from semi autonomous agents is “discovered” by Google watchers. The method appears in a stack of Google patent documents, but some people just realized how the Google plumbing moves digital water from A to B and what chemical treatments are applied prior to its discharge.
I recommend reading this TechCrunch article for three reasons:
- It appears to suggest that Google is a monopoly although a different type of monopoly
- The write up presents examples of how today’s Google seems to be a bit different from more benign views of Google in the “Larry and Sergey eat pizza” types of analysis.
- A big stick is now beating Googzilla about the ears.
Stephen E Arnold, February 18, 2010
No one paid me to write this. Since I reference the mistreatment of Googzillas, I suppose I need to report this lack of payment and my culpability for suggesting the use of intellectual force against Googzillas to the director of the National Zoo, where most animals are treated humanely.
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