The Search Party

Summary

In The Search Party, Ken Auletta shows that people believed that Google was a tool to with hold its users from advancing into new information. "An organization called Hands Off the Internet, ...ran full-paged newspaper advertisements in which it accused Google of wanting to create a monopoly and block 'new innovation'..." Though Google has become a major attribute to the Internet, Sergey Brin, one of the founders of the search engine, emphasizes the fact that Google's goal is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." Since the goal is so large, the company would also become large. Because of this, newspapers, authors, and even Microsoft had a concern, because Google was taking over every industry involving information and software.
The overall question to be answered is, "Does Google have too much power?" One of the views illustrated is that Google is shaping the power of other industries, through the information that it provides. Others say that it should be looked at as a tool to help serve small parties and even large parties, so it is not too powerful, it just spreads the power throughout its users. Google has also brought up competing search engines, which has helped people, because there are more options to choose from when looking for information.
While all of the accusations against Google were going on, Google spread into the mobile telephone business. Google has found yet another way to either expand their power, or provide information to everybody in a device that everybody uses. Eric Schmidt, another co-founder explains that "in our society, bigness is often associated with bad." But he makes the case that the size and influence of Google is not bad, it would be bad if arrogance came into play. If the company becomes arrogant then there is a problem.

Three Questions:
- Is Google too powerful?
- Does it seem that Google or the founders of Google are arrogant?
- How big is the threat of Google to other companies, such as Microsoft?

Inquiry

I do not think Google is too powerful. Granted there is a lot of power involved and several things you can use with Google, but I think it is all in good manner. Google seems to be an advantage for most people, because it is a quick and easy way to find pretty much any information. I do not see this as them abusing the power of the search engine, just as using it to the fullest of its capability for the benefit of its users. I don't see how Google can be viewed as arrogant, because it seems that its main goal is for the benefit of the public, to make information easily accessible.
Google is not a threat to any other companies, especially Microsoft, I think they work hand in hand.