Wow, that’s some foresight you’ve got there Jeff!

You were even talking about QR codes, and how Google was looking at the non search world… do you do palm readings too?

Very good – like it!

More seriously though, I think that with any company that is as good as Google, and helps as many people as it does there will inevitably be some people who fear the worst and forcast total monopolies and choice-architecture webs.

In my opinion, which is just that, I think we can expect great things from Google without worrying about gross unethical conduct. Did they not recently pull out of China on moral grounds (in one fell swipe alienating themselves from their largest market). Its not all about the money for some companies – just being the best at what they do.

I’ve been meaning to get round to reading this post for a while, and while I was going through some old links of mine, serendipitously also came across a similar post from a few years ago:

http://www.buzzmachine.com/2007/12/29/google-is-god/#comment-366040

Jeff, Google is trying to Proprietarise the internet, from one where people entered a search term and it directed users as quickly as possible without getting in the way to external sites, having built the user-base/market-share and told everyone it wasn’t evil or a portal, it has gone on to acquire, control or present “content” that keeps users within, while killing the myriad smaller players and making it almost impossible for new entrants (see mapping) and essentially turning its regular users version of the Internet into its private fiefdom, it’s own dark-web, walled-garden for the fattest part of search.

It is pursuing with data, what Wal-Mart has done for physical goods in the constant cycle of greater custom, lower prices, less competitors; and applying the basis of the network-effect in a segment where its not a fundamental necessity.

Yours kindly,

Shakir Razak

The day we will work truly mobile, search will go in the background and local context and social will be really important.

“All the rest” is basically noise. (Look at the actual revenues.)

The quote is a nice touch. It’s your saying and it scares you. While interesting at some level, it tells us nothing about what’s actually happening in the world.

> Does Google really want to take over DNS, for example?

That assumes facts not in evidence. (They offered free dns services, below the root.) If you actually know something not-public, let’s see it. Otherwise, you’re just scaring yourself with things that you’re making up.

I’m not a big fan of Google, but ranting about fantasies is dumb.

Or, maybe this is part of Google’s plan to discredit critics. It promotes lots of bogus arguments so that folks associate lunacy with Google criticism.

What are you babbling about? The market worked great for railroads. Regulation is what almost killed them.

And yes, that was true even in the transcontinental days. The ones on the govt teat built tracks that didn’t last to places with no traffic while the ones that did without make money.

As far as “the internet” goes, govt gave darpa money and bought bandwidth. By govt standards, Darpa is competent, albeit wasteful, but it isn’t typical. The DMV is.

Radio bands? Until recently, govt didn’t actually give a damn what you did on a given frequency. It just said who could be on a given frequency. That’s a long way from “govt search”.

It’s all the rest – ‘everything will be digitized and pass through Google’ – that’s dangerous and anti-American if taken to the extreme. Does Google really want to take over DNS, for example? Hopefully they’ll pull back, but the forces of regulation are clearly lining up for the future. I’m just saying this as an observer – hell, I love Google’s toolset, run my business on it.

Why?

Search is not a natural monopoly. And, if govt takeover is the solution to popular “biased search results” (or whatever excuse is used), then what’s to stop folks from moving those “biases” (or whatever) to another search company (possibly new)? Since we’re assuming popular, the users will soon follow, and the govt is left holding a very expensive bag.

Or, are you thinking that we should regulate all search companies or somehow stop folks from abandoning “govt search”?

Note – The above only depends on Google’s results, however determined, being popular, regardless of any bias or other malfesance.