by Felix Cohen
Over the past few months, Google has shown that it is finding it increasingly difficult to marry its 'don't be evil', college kids having fun in California image with an increasingly massive market valuation, influence and responsibility.
Firstly, we had Brin and Page squabbling over the outfitting of a corporate jet (a Boeing 767, for the detail spotters out there), which they apparently requested be outfitted with hammocks, king-size beds and, one imagines, Bond-villian-esque shark tank bars, diamond chandeliers and the like. Of course, two wildly successful geeks indulging themselves in some fairly run of the mill excess is nothing to be too upset about but Google the company - as well as Google the search engine- have started to show some signs of creeping bureaucracy.
Google's job application process has been much-vaunted for its ingeniousness, but it appears that for many talented engineers, they have finally crossed a line between pushing applicants, and pushing applicants away. Tales abound of ridiculous questions, interviews with inappropriate people and bizarre one-upmanship. And now, Google has gone (at least to my psychologists eyes), algorithm crazy, introducing massive profiling of their current employees to use to evaluate potential new employees. But then, when you have so many applicants that only 5% of randomly selected unsolicited applications even get read (this may be apocryphal), perhaps some sort of automated sorting is helpful. (Disclosure: I did apply to Google for a job. I didn't hear anything back, and I am a little bitter). I'm sure, however, it's all worth it for the Google canteen!
More importantly, especially for the chatterati in the blogosphere, Google's reorganisation of the way they ranked certain (adult) blogs, in parallel with their advertising product, Adsense, meant that a number of the more indie/alternative 'adult' blogs, dropped far in a number of google searches. There was a brief uprising in the blogosphere, before Google reinstated various sites to their proper place. Of course, as one poster commented, 'you think there are other search engines, so that's okay? There are no other search engines'.
And this is where Google's 'don't be evil mantra' starts to unravel. As a company, they are now facing a future where they effectively have a monopoly in online search. Sure, some people use Yahoo, or MSN, but the vast majority of internet users treat what Google tells them as gospel. Having had a difficult enough time getting my own site to appear in searches for my name (although I am up against some heavy competition), I can see why many people are worried about Google creating a monoculture, as most internet advertising, search and, increasingly, content creation, comes under their sway. Google must become aware of the power it now wields in global culture, and, to quote Spiderman, realise that 'with great power, comes great responsibility'. They have shown that they are capable of using their sway to good effect in China (or at least, to better effect than Yahoo, but for many web cognoscenti, they are still too opaque and too far-reaching.
openDemocracy's prediction marketing is showing a slight preference for Google's stock price to continue to raise, but I think that 2007 will be a turbulent year for the search giant, as many people will be watching them very closely, and on the internet, a small change in fortune could mean a massive change in perception. Looking forward, my advice for the google investors out there, not only in our Inkling market, might be to start selling Google a little shorter than you might think.
