

Who Does Google Think They're Fooling? - jcaruso
http://www.johncaruso.ca/index.php?post=369

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nextparadigms
I don't think Google is fooling anyone. They would obviously profit from a
more open web. Anything that helps the web as a whole, pretty much helps
Google as a whole. This is why if you care about the Internet, Google will be
your ally in most cases (yes, not all). That's why they helped with SOPA, too.
And they will probably continue to remain an ally in such cases.

So just because Google has something to gain from it (otherwise why would they
even do it?) doesn't mean they are wrong on what they are saying about the
walled gardens like Facebook and Apple. A more open Internet would help
Google, but would also help new start-ups. It would help the _next_ Google as
well. Imagine if every website would've been a walled garden in the early
2000's. We wouldn't even have a search engine right now, or at least not a
very useful one.

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Zikes
"I don't deny that Sergey probably cares a lot about the web being open" but
he's just not allowed to say anything about it ever because his company can
then index that open web and make it searchable, then put ads by the search
results.

I went into this article expecting some sort of hypocrisy call-out about
Google not being open enough while whining about others' walled gardens, but
the OP's argument just doesn't make sense to me. Of course they'd make money
off of it, that's what they do. That's what all the search engines do. What is
OP so angry about?

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bitbiter
Isn't this really just an ad homeniem?

Would the author have the same reaction if it was made by Brewster Kahle,
founder of the non-profit Internet Archive (www.archive.org)?

After all, the same points can easily be made in regard to non-profit
information archiving as for profit-seeking information indexing.

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michaelbuckbee
If something is crawlable by Google then it should be crawlable by Bing or DDG
or me if I want to try and make something.

Certainly a more 'open web' would help Google, but it would also help Bing,
DDG or any other dev who would like to make something interesting.

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hcarvalhoalves
I'd rather have crawable content searchable thru Google with relevant ads on
the side than the shitty advertising Facebook or YouTube throws in my face,
for instance. People complain (me too) but the fact is Google (search engine,
not company) is the only one in position to deliver relevant advertising that
doesn't bother the user. It's a win-win.

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DanielBMarkham
The problem here is that you are posing this as an either-or question. It's
certainly possible that Apple and Facebook are destroying the internet as we
know it AND Google has their own agenda. You don't have to pick one or the
other.

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benbeltran
Well. I don't know the details. But wouldn't facebook benefit from having
social results in google a-la google+? ... If this data was crawlable / more
open, wouldn't google be able to include facebook results to personalize
search?

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colindoc84
So you believe providing ad content isn't to the benefit of consumers?

