Googlization
Googlization refers to the phenomenon of Google's extensive influence and dominance in the realm of information commerce, especially as it relates to web search and data management. Originating from the company's rise as a search engine that revolutionized how users access information, it has since expanded into various sectors, including publishing and digital media. As Google became the leading search engine, concerns emerged regarding its monopolization of web data and the implications for content diversity and availability. Critics argue that Google's corporate practices, particularly its algorithmic decisions and policies of secrecy, might restrict the range of information accessible to the public, raising questions about the balance between corporate interests and user needs.
The term "Googlization" was popularized by journalist Alex Salkever, who pointed out the risks associated with a single company's control over information dissemination. Additionally, legal controversies, such as those surrounding the Google Books Project, highlight ongoing debates about copyright, intellectual property, and the ethics of information sharing. Some experts advocate for increased regulation and governmental involvement in data management to ensure a more equitable distribution of information. Ultimately, while Google has greatly enhanced the accessibility of online data and facilitated commerce, the discussion surrounding Googlization continues to evolve, reflecting broader concerns about neutrality and fairness in the digital age.
Subject Terms
Googlization
"Googlization" refers to the dominance of Google in regard to information commerce and its expansion into markets such as publishing, imaging, and art. Some media experts and sociologists have expressed concern that Google’s initial interests—to provide a search engine that brings disparate data to a wide range of people—are at odds with the company’s increasing monopolization of web data and that the Internet would be better managed by state-sponsored organizations that can provide data in the public trust without the need to balance user interest with profitability. In addition, some critics argue that Google’s policy of corporate secrecy with regard to its search-engine algorithms makes it impossible for the public to know whether Google’s technology provides balanced content.
In addition to Google’s dominance of Internet search and indexing, the company’s role in digitizing information sources that were not previously usable on the web—including books, satellite images, and maps—has raised red flags. Google Books and Google Street View (part of Google Earth and Google Maps) are controversial, and both services have been the subject of class-action lawsuits. In response to these issues, some media experts have promoted enhanced regulation to protect personal rights and copyrighted data as the availability of online data increases.
Background
The search engine Google began as an academic research project by PhD students Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Stanford University. The initial web crawler that later became the Google search engine debuted in 1996, and Google was formally founded in 1998. By 2003, Google was the world’s leading search engine, and at the peak of the company’s dominance, in 2004, it handled nearly 85 percent of all web searches. The technological innovation behind Google’s success is the search engine’s method of delivering search results based on ranking pages according to numbers of links from the page in question to other web pages. Essentially, Page and Brin decided that "important" web pages would have greater traffic and linkages, and this became the model for Google’s page-ranking system.
In terms of corporate ethics, the prospectus for Google contained the simple creed "Don’t Be Evil," which Google management explained as the idea that the company’s goal was to provide a public service for the betterment of the world and that the company would therefore consciously avoid making choices that sacrifice service for commercial gain. Throughout the life of the company, Google engineers and managers claim that the company has remained true to this goal, specifically by ranking pages in order of "importance" rather than "corporate value" to Google and affiliate companies.
Dominance of the Search Market
Though Google entered the search-engine market as an "alternative" to the leading Microsoft Corporation, by the mid-2000s, the company’s dominance was such that the terms "google" and "googling" had been integrated into the English language as synonyms for "web searching." As Google grew, perception of the company changed, and consumers and researchers began speculating on the potential risks of monopolization in the search-engine industry.
In a 2003 article in Business Week, journalist Alex Salkever coined the term "Googlization" to refer to the company’s dominance and spread into information commerce. Salkever called Google an "omnipresent middleman," and argued that the dominance of any single company poses a risk to the balance and freedom of Internet information. One of Salkever’s central arguments is that, by integrating data from other companies into its search-results pages, Google effectively replaces the marketing and aesthetic of other companies with its own, limiting and reducing the diversity and potential benefits of the web for a variety of businesses.
In a 2008 article originally published in German in Lettre International, journalist Geert Lovink argues that the results of Google searches are increasingly seen as the fullness of available information, while Google’s page ranking and corporate focus is only one of many possible ways to organize and present the data available through the web. In a 2009 chapter for the book Deep Search: The Politics of Search Engines, Richard Rogers explores Googlization through the spread of the "pay-for-profile" business model, in which web companies provide free services in return for information about consumers. This information is then sold to companies that use it to tailor advertisements toward consumers whose "browsing behavior" indicates potential interest. Rogers expressed concern that Google’s focus on providing "useful" information tailored to each consumer (in addition to tailored advertising) might actually limit the breadth and depth of information available through the web.
The 2011 book The Googlization of Everything (and Why We Should Worry) discusses Googlization in relation to Google’s increasing spread into other forms of media. Specifically, it discusses the Google Books Project, which was formally launched in 2004 and provides scanned digital snippets of copyrighted books (with links to purchase copies) and full-text web copies of books in the public domain. In 2005, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers brought a class-action lawsuit against Google for copyright infringement, claiming that Google’s scanning of copyrighted works and the provision of "snippets" for public viewing were violations of intellectual copyrights. Google claimed the digital library, snippets, and copies provided are in compliance with the standards of fair use and that the company offers authors and copyright holders the option to "opt out" of the project. In 2013, federal courts dismissed the case, giving Google the right to expand its digital catalog of books.
Impact
The Googlization of Everything argues that government agencies should participate in building and maintaining catalogs of knowledge and search engines in the public trust. According to this view, governments would be motivated to provide information in a more balanced way, as they would be unhampered by the need to accommodate profitability into the model when designing search engines and catalogs of data. While opinions differ on whether Google continues to live up to its "Don’t Be Evil" motto and to develop the web for the public benefit, ultimately, diversity and balance are needed to maintain neutrality in regard to web data.
Despite criticisms, Google and other web-search companies have provided tremendous benefits to the public by helping consumers find, manage, and utilize information available on the web. In addition, the growth of search engines creates and facilitates commerce, thereby helping economic growth and providing employment opportunities for numerous workers. As the Internet continues to play an essential role in modern life, the question remains whether intervention, regulation, and perhaps deeper governmental involvement will be needed to protect neutrality and prevent monopolization and bias in managing the store of human knowledge.
Bibliography
Battelle, John. "The Birth of Google." Wired. Condé Nast, Aug. 2005. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.
Battelle, John. "The ‘Creeping Googlization’ Meme." Battelle Media. Battelle, 16 Dec. 2003. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.
Grayling, A. C. "‘The Googlization of Everything’: Has Google Turned Evil?" Salon. Salon Media Group, 11 Apr. 2011. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.
Lovink, Geert. "The Society of the Query and the Googlization of Our Lives." Eurozine. Eurozine, 5 Sept. 2008. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.
Rogers, Richard. "The Googlization Question, and the Inculpable Engine." Deep Search: The Politics of Search Engines. Ed. Konrad Becker and Felix Stalder. Edison: Transaction, 2009. Print.
Salkever, Alex. "Google Here, There, and Everywhere." Businessweek. Bloomberg, 15 Dec. 2003. Web. 7 Dec. 2014.
Vaidhyanathan, Siva. "The Googlization of Everything and the Future of Copyright." University of California, Davis Law Review 40 (2007): 1207-–31. Web. 7 Dec. 2014. PDF file.
Vaidhyanathan, Siva. The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry). Berkeley: U of California P, 2011. Print.