Business Week Online has a fascinating cover story which examines the growing dominance of Google on both the information economy and the business world. The question “Is Google Too powerful” is not merely rhetorical as the article delves into details about how Google is using its profits to encroach upon traditional media such as television, magazines and radio.
Experts like Tech historian George Dyson have even suggested that Google might become a national defense liability because of the massive concentration of data and the influence that Google holds over infrastructural networks.
Ultimately, Google must grapple with the essential paradox it embodies. As a corporation, it’s often a cipher, its intentions and methods concealed by algorithms that look impenetrable and impersonal. Yet the search engine and the blockbuster business built atop it utterly depend upon millions of people sharing through searches their most intimate desires, and upon thousands of businesses willing to open their data storehouses to feed Google’s voracious digital maw.
