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The conflict of interest that is Google
CodeTRUCKER:
That all sounds real good and benign until you start factoring in other very serious items.
<> Google put at risk the Chinese citizens who would exercise a free-speech right by agreeing to allow the Chinese government unhindered access to any records (read: IPs) of any and all searches.
<> Google has digitized (photographed) hundreds of thousands (millions?) of copyrighted works and declared their "digitized data" are Big G's property via their own copyright.
This is only two. There are more. Please feel free to do the "Fill-In-The-Blank" name game with the above. Doesn't quite fit does it?
Aside from the above Google presents itself as an inert "search" engine to the masses which accords some measure of acceptable norms of a common trust to Google. The only way Google can take economic advantage of the "searchers" trust is to manipulate that trust without the "searchers" knowledge. No matter how you slice it, this pretending of Google to be a "service" to the masses while clandestinely seeking/exercising a significantly different agenda constitutes the darker side of business and stretches any level of integrity to the breaking point.
Keep in mind it is only the ability of a deceiver in using the lie to keep the deceived believing the deceiver is to be trusted which allows the deceiver to deceive the deceived with the lie. Once the truth is known by the deceived the power of the deceiver and the lie is nullified and the deceiver loses any credibility. In other words, a lie only has power while the deceiver can keep the deceived believing the deceiver is to be trusted. Google succeeds in continuing to keep the "searcher" believing "Google is your friend."
How would you like your friends/business associates to treat you as Big G treats the "searchers?" Your answer should illuminate the validity/invalidity of Google's claim to your trust.
IainB:
That all sounds real good and benign until you start factoring in other very serious items.
...
-CodeTRUCKER (March 05, 2012, 05:28 PM)
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+1 from me for pretty much all that you wrote there CodeTRUCKER. :Thmbsup:
When I read this bit though, I have to say that it rather felt like I was playing verbal "Twister": ;)
Keep in mind it is only the ability of a deceiver in using the lie to keep the deceived believing the deceiver is to be trusted which allows the deceiver to deceive the deceived with the lie. Once the truth is known by the deceived the power of the deceiver and the lie is nullified and the deceiver loses any credibility. In other words, a lie only has power while the deceiver can keep the deceived believing the deceiver is to be trusted. Google succeeds in continuing to keep the "searcher" believing "Google is your friend."
-CodeTRUCKER (March 05, 2012, 05:28 PM)
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If you don't mind I would rephrase and augment it thus:
We all generally tend by nature to be credulous (willing to believe or trust too readily, especially without proper or adequate evidence), and tend to believe what we are told to believe or what we want to believe (confirmation bias) - often despite any inherent irrationality in the belief or any evidence which might contradict it.
This generalisation can be substantiated by, for example, the 2008/9 statistics/estimates which apparently showed that, out of the Earth's global population of 6 billion, 1.6 billion were Islamists, and 1.4 billion were RC/Christian. That's an estimted 50% of the world's population (us) that are apparently gullible/irrational enough to believe in an unsubstantiated myth - an invisible, omnipotent and omnipresent friend.
Additionally, Vedic philosophy teaches us that, once swallowed, we can tend to cling onto a belief because of Ahamkara. It becomes conjoined with our ego, and we have to defend it. Sometimes we will defend or enforce the belief with our lives, and even with lives of others. (QED.)
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The evidence would seem to be that various unscrupulous people, religious leaders, governments and commercial organisations have taken advantage of human gullibility in order to deceive, trick, manipulate and control them for at least 2,000 years - and they continue to do so to the present day.
Therefore, if Google has indeed been guilty of deceiving us and breaching our trust - because, dammit, we believed in Google - then the scale of that deception is relatively insignificant when compared to the scale of that deceived 50% and in the historical context.
And it serves the purpose of oiling the wheels and feeding the demand for the economic machine.
And that is apparently a sufficiently "worthy cause" in a Capitalist economy for such deception to be allowed (if it wasn't, then Google and similar would probably already have been stopped dead in their tracks). Any deception could arguably be "for the greater good".
That's why I wrote:
Is it justified to criticise Google for what it does or the way it does what it does?
As the marketing speak would put it, "It's all a matter of perception".
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In addition to its indisputably generally positive contribution to the Internet and the economy, Google is also relatively harmless, and, if you don't like it, then there is (so far) nothing stopping you from getting out of its clutches by closing your Google account and boycotting its services - unlike the EU or Islamism, where you are not allowed to leave once you have become a member (in fact the punishment for apostasy in Islam is death).
Regardless, Google is probably still perceived as a "friend" by the uncritical and credulous majority.
So we should stop griping and thank our lucky stars. You've never had it so good. ;)
J-Mac:
Two somewhat non-relevant points:
First...
Keep in mind it is only the ability of a deceiver in using the lie to keep the deceived believing the deceiver is to be trusted which allows the deceiver to deceive the deceived with the lie. Once the truth is known by the deceived the power of the deceiver and the lie is nullified and the deceiver loses any credibility. In other words, a lie only has power while the deceiver can keep the deceived believing the deceiver is to be trusted. Google succeeds in continuing to keep the "searcher" believing "Google is your friend."
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Huh? I tried reading through that series of sentences a second time but then decided I'd rather play on Braingle and work on their brain-teasers there; those are more fun!
Second, I looked at your "Google Knol" article Iain and I did try to read it, honest! But I kept drifting off every time I got past Lord Krishna chatting with Arjun... especially when I got to the part where we are losing our Ahamkara - I think?! I suppose I might just be losing my attention span rapidly as I grow older - apparently at or near the speed of light.
Basically, I think I am just too darned tired to understand any of what the heck you guys are talking about. :huh: :-\
Oh, and BTW - looks like Google is ending the whole "Knol" thing, unfortunately. You probably know that but I just found out. :(
Thanks!
Jim
IainB:
Basically, I think I am just too darned tired to understand any of what the heck you guys are talking about. :huh: :-\
-J-Mac (March 05, 2012, 09:09 PM)
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I don't blame you.
I don't understand what the heck I'm talking about half the time either! ;)
Oh, and BTW - looks like Google is ending the whole "Knol" thing, unfortunately. You probably know that but I just found out. :(
-J-Mac (March 05, 2012, 09:09 PM)
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Yes. I was annoyed when I read that Google intended to close the Knol service. (I believed in Google, dammit!) :mad:
And migrating a Knol to Annotum (the recommended migration site) does not work properly, causing me to lose roughly 80% of the knol content.
Ah well. Once bitten, twice shy.
That Ahamkara concept, by the way - that is a surprisingly useful concept. It is wisdom/knowledge that can help to explain a lot of our previously inexplicable irrational behaviours. It comes from the 3,000 year-old (or so) Vedic religious philosophy, and has been absorbed into the much younger Hindu religious philosophy.
When I discovered that Ahamkara was a theory which was supported by evidence and experience of irrational human behaviour (my own included!), I was bowled over. I haven't been able to refute it by rational argument or from experience, yet (though I keep trying).
I would recommend that you persevere and have a read of the Bhagavad Gita, even if it does send you to sleep. It's very interesting.
mouser:
From slashdot:
'We've always suspected that Google might tweak its search algorithms to gain an advantage over its rivals — and, according to an FTC investigation inadvertently shared with the Wall Street Journal, it did. Quoting: "In a lengthy investigation, staffers in the FTC's bureau of competition found evidence that Google boosted its own services for shopping, travel and local businesses by altering its ranking criteria and "scraping" content from other sites. It also deliberately demoted rivals. For example, the FTC staff noted that Google presented results from its flight-search tool ahead of other travel sites, even though Google offered fewer flight options. Google's shopping results were ranked above rival comparison-shopping engines, even though users didn't click on them at the same rate, the staff found. Many of the ways Google boosted its own results have not been previously disclosed.'
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/inside-the-u-s-antitrust-probe-of-google-1426793274
"WASHINGTON—Officials at the Federal Trade Commission concluded in 2012 that Google Inc. used anticompetitive tactics and abused its monopoly power in ways that harmed Internet users and rivals, a far harsher analysis of Google’s business than was previously known."
from: http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/03/20/1639215/ftc-google-altered-search-results-for-profit
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