How much Control should Google Have?

Is Google too Big?

Anyone with a brain knows that bias in search results is possible. Google's mathematical algorithms with which it ranks search results are of course a closely guarded secret. The formulas could be distorted artificially to promote or demote particular sites in search results.

But it is against the interest of Google to do so. Its research is useful for Web users, because it is regarded as a reliable supplier of the most useful information, a service that will get them what they want, not what Google wants. Google would lose consumer confidence and customers would go to search engine competitors such as Bing and Yahoo if it skewed the results.

The question shouldn't be whether Google is filling its search results with too many AdWords ads at the top of the page. The question should be, how much control should one company have over what we find on the Internet?

This is obviously an interesting paradox. We all want good information when we do a search on the net. While  content farms often populate our results with crap, who should be the judge of what information is good and which is not, what we find and what we do not? Google? Microsoft? The U.S. Senate? The FTC?

Or should we let market forces of greed, power and corruption reduce the Web to an instrument of capitalism with no use to society as a whole?

Although I doubt that Senators Franken, Schumer and their friends in Washington really see how big a deal this is, more and more of us get our knowledge of the world, interacting with the world, choose what to buy, manage finances, and make decisions based on what we find online.

In who's hands is determining who has the power to give this information to us, essentially, determining who has the power to refer a certain world view?

I'm not for breaking up businesses because of competition. Competition is usually good. It breeds quality and low prices. In most cases I believe we should let corporations grow at their own speed and watch what they do to manage themselves. However natural selection doesn't always kill off monsters. Sometimes nasty predators are allowed to survive.  

Is Google such a predator? There is great power in the hands of Google. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

As I mentioned in my recent Conspiracy Watch article, Google's Ever Continuing Quest for Global Domination has Sights on Your Wallet, I love Google's products; I use Google's Gmail, Google Search, Google Chrome, Google Plus, Google Webmaster Tools, and many other Google products. Heck, even this blog is hosted by Google Blogger. But that doesn't change the fact that Google is getting too big.

If you still doubt the magnitude of Google empire, nobody exposes Google like West Point computer science professor Greg Conti, with his book Googling Security: How Much Does Google Know About You? This book reveals the privacy implications of Gmail, Google Maps, Google Talk, Google Groups, Google Alerts, Google’s new mobile applications, and more. Conti shows how Google’s databases can be used by others with bad intent, even if Google heeds its own “don’t be evil” pledge.

I doubt if Senators Kohl, Schumer, Klobuchar, Franken, Blumenthal and the rest of those tasked with investigating Google could be silenced if they ask too many difficult questions of Mr. Schmidt. But nevertheless, Google's CEO could undoubtedly cause some problems.  

Written By: Tom Retterbush

Googling Security

How Much Does Google Know About You?

When you use Google’s “free” services, you pay, big time–with personal information about yourself. Google is making a fortune on what it knows about you…and you may be shocked by just how much Google does know. Googling Security is the first book to reveal how Google’s vast information stockpiles could be used against you or your business–and what you can do to protect yourself.

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