Info 435/635: Seminar on Applications of Information Science

Week 8: Is Google evil?

In less than a decade, Google has parlayed its early prominence in web information retrieval into cultural iconhood and Wall Street stardom. But even companies that start with the best of intentions can go astray. While Google's motto is "Don't be evil", will parodies such as Google Announces Plan To Destroy All Information It Can't Index become too close to reality for comfort before too long? Is it dangerous to have too much control over access to information in too few hands? Will some form of government regulation be necessary, or even possible?

Below are a few informal resources (all short) that suggest ways that "evil" could be realized in this context:

• "Advertising-funded search engines will inherently be biased toward the advertisers and away from the needs of consumers." -- Brin/Page, 1998 (Oct, 2005)
• PageRank: Original Sin (and see other issues flagged on google-watch.org, add grain of salt)
• Naïveté (note this is not parody, at least not intentionally, please read ...). See also GoogleBase.
• Privacy (Nov 2005) and Legal (Feb 2006) issues
• Facilitates censorship (Jan 2006) (and even high school newspapers chime in, Feb 2006)
• Fear factor (Nov 2005)
• Too nosy (Feb 2006), and c.f. Gmail

Assignment

Most of these resources are very informal. They can be considered as Web gossip, rather than a serious analysis of the topic. In recent months Google has been accused of several forms of evil, including accepting censorship in China, systematic violation of copyright, providing personal information to the CIA, etc.

For the class on Monday, March 12, be prepared to make a five minute presentation on one of these accusations. Look for reliable sources of information to find out whether the accusation is justified by the facts. What is the company's reaction to the accusation? How has the company balanced its wish to be socially responsible against the financial pressures faced by any public company?

On Wednesday, March 14, we will ask the questions:

• If a company such as Google is judged to be too powerful or is abusing its position, what mechanisms does society have to control its actions?
• As a public company, the stock market expects that Google will increase its profits dramatically every year. Sooner or later this will become difficult. When that happens, how would you expect the company to change?
• Can you find historical parallels with AT&T, IBM, Xerox, and Microsoft, which are companies that have had dominant positions in their lines of business?

There is no reading list for this class, but you are encouraged to prepare for the class by browsing through the literature on the topic.