Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
only challenges the traditional map publishers and vendors of geospatial
data, but also creates dependencies on Google because it powers many
map-based services, embedded on third-party websites. What happens
when a company creates these dependencies and then takes the content
away, or decides to charge for it?
Google has also recently launched Knol, a website which at first
glance is a challenge to Wikipedia, but is trying to go a little further.
The articles on Knol can have multiple (but named) authors, which,
under Google's structure, is called 'moderated collaboration'.
Final thoughts
Perhaps all stakeholders in the current traditional information
landscape have some lessons to learn from Google. On its corporate
information web page Google lists ten things it has found to be true.
The first of these is 'Focus on the user and all else will follow', and to
this end Google ensures that:
the interface is clear and simple
pages load instantly
placement in search results is never sold to anyone
advertising on the site must offer relevant content and not be a
distraction.
Will traditional publishers and librarians focus on the user and find that
'all else follows' or will many fail to find new methods of access,
dissemination, distribution and business models to support them? The
danger is that they do not, and that Google becomes a monopoly. Do
we want one single organization controlling the whole information
environment? Google claims that 'You can make money without doing
evil', but a monopoly is a dangerous thing. If librarians and publishers
do not adapt, evolve and survive, there is the danger that Google could
not only become the ultimate organizer of the world's information, but
also the ultimate controller of information, the censor and the spy.
Cory Doctorow commenting on Google recently wrote: 'There's no
dictator benevolent enough to entrust with the power to determine our
political, commercial, social and ideological agenda' (Doctorow, 2009).
That would seem obvious, but what is not so obvious is the
