The engine that rules the world

John Naughton, the Observer’s internet columnist, says that Google ( to whom we are grateful for Blogger) is set on global domination. From this week's Spectator:

Google’s business plan, like Microsoft’s, can be summarised in two words: world domination. In 1975 Bill Gates set out his vision of ‘a computer on every desk and every one running Microsoft software’. Si monumentum requiris, circumspice (as Christopher Wren might have said). Google’s declared mission is ‘to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful’. By this the company means all the world’s information. At the moment, for example, it is funding a massive project to digitise the entire text of the books in some of the world’s greatest libraries. When complete, a search will enable online perusal of any text that is out of copyright and selective browsing of copyrighted works (something that worries some academic publishers). In a networked world, Google’s role as the gateway to online information could give it tremendous power. We all know what power does to those who wield it. And if we don’t, a Google search for ‘power, acton, corrupt’ will find 205,000 relevant pages in 0.34 seconds.