The GOOG back/slash builds . . . is the end (/>) to free content in sight?
I've been saying Google is a media company for a couple of years now. I put it this way: Google is a media business because it publishes pages of content with advertising around it. Now, more of the media is figuring it out.
Over at the excellent Poynter.org journalism site, there are an increasing number of articles and discussions about Google. And that's because more of the media is noticing that that Google is indeed a media company, or as I like to put it, "a technology-enabled media company."
For example, Vincent J. Maher over at Poynter, wrote this short article: We're Facing a Monster: Will Someone Please Step Up and Say It?
Maher notes that Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp is considering banning YouTube videos from MySpace. And he says that every media company should place Google on its hitlist.
As a veritable superpower in information gathering and publishing, we should remember that Google has used its power to censor the Internet in China, and to help itself win court cases through exclusive access to its Gmail spam filter data. And in Belgium, Google scoffed at legitimate copyright claims.
The cultural impact of such power is to stifle competition and innovation -- the very things Google says it stands for.
Can someone please step up and say we're facing a monster?
I'll step up and say it, I'll even shout it: WE ARE FACING A MOSTER.
GOOG is a monster media company that seeks to collect and distribute every digital bit and byte worth publishing--over a global distribution network that is unmatched in its efficiency and scale.
The monster is fed by massive amounts of free content harvested from the web, and then redistributed within an advertising wrapper. All automated. (Including the laughing-all-the-way-to-the-bank... :-)
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I predict Google Free Zones on the Internet will arise and I humbly offer this designation:
</GOOG>
(
For those who don't speak Geek, it's a play on </DIV> - the closing tag for applying CSS style sheets, which is used to control the look and feel of nearly everything published on the web.
