The Googlization of Everything

by Vaidhyanathan, Siva

• ISBN13: 9780520272897
• ISBN10: 0520272897
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-03-13
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

In the beginning, the World Wide Web was exciting and open to the point of anarchy, a vast and intimidating repository of unindexed confusion. Into this creative chaos came Google with its dazzling mission--"To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible"--and its much-quoted motto, "Don't be Evil." In this provocative book, Siva Vaidhyanathan examines the ways we have used and embraced Google--and the growing resistance to its expansion across the globe. He exposes the dark side of our Google fantasies, raising red flags about issues of intellectual property and the much-touted Google Book Search. He assesses Google's global impact, particularly in China, and explains the insidious effect of Googlization on the way we think. Finally, Vaidhyanathan proposes the construction of an Internet ecosystem designed to benefit the whole world and keep one brilliant and powerful company from falling into the "evil" it pledged to avoid.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xi
Introduction: The Gospel of Google	p. 1
Render unto Caesar: How Google Came to Rule the Web	p. 13
Google's Ways and Means: Faith in Aptitude and Technology	p. 51
The Googlization of Us: Universal Surveillance and Infrastructural Imperialism	p. 82
The Googlization of the World: Prospects for a Global Public Sphere	p. 115
The Googlization of Knowledge: The Future of Books	p. 149
The Googlization of Memory: Information Overload, Filters, and the Fracturing of Knowledge	p. 174
Conclusion: The Human Knowledge Project	p. 199
Acknowledgments	p. 211
Notes	p. 219
Index	p. 257
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