Putting all this together, we reach the conclusion that, on the one hand, Google is cool. On the other hand, Google has the potential to destroy the publishing industry, the newspaper business, high street retailing and our privacy. Not that it will necessarily do any of these things, but for the first time, considered soberly, these things are technologically possible. The company is rich and determined and is not going away any time soon. They know what they are doing technologically; socially, though, they can’t possibly know, and I don’t think anyone else can either. These are the earliest days in a process of what may turn out to be radical change. The best historical analogy for where Google is today probably comes from the time when the railroads were being built. Everyone knew that trains and railways would change the world, but no one predicted the invention of suburbs. Google, and the increased flow of information on which it rides and from which it benefits, is the railway. I don’t think we’ve yet seen the first suburbs.
This, the final paragraph from John Lanchester’s article, The search engine that could, the cover story in the A2 section of The Age today. Unfortunately there is not a link at their website. The original article can be found at London Review of Books website where it was published on January 26. The article refers to the excellent book, The Search, How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture by John Battelle (which I reviewed here last year).
Lanchester’s questions, comments and opinions are worthy of consideration. However, his piece is also about Wikipedia, Yahoo, Craigslist, News Corporation and the other global brands leading more and more people online and away from traditional places of social and commercial interaction. Who knows where this will end. Lanchester’s piece is timely and considered. I’m glad The Age has given the space necessary to run the whole piece on its pages – in the UK the Guardian ran an edited version. I’d like a follow up from a local perspective since we’re not feeling the impact here which is being felt in the US, yet.
It would be good to see The Age take a step further and open discussion, maybe through a public forum, on the issues canvassed in the article. This would be a good way for the newspaper to strengthen its community connection and demonstrate its role in the changing world.
In the meantime, I hope that newsagents, the independent small business owners who sell the bulk of newspapers in Australia, read the article and understand the implications for their businesses.
i find this article fasinating, i share your opinion too. good work.