John Battelle in the first half of his book, The Search, examines the history behind search and how Google has become the leader in search. The second half of The Search looks at how Google has grown from a private company to the public money making machine it is today.  Additionally, Battelle addresses many of the privacy concerns associated with search and the Patriot Act.

To Google or not to Google a question many may be asking after reading chapter eight of The Search.  Battelle addresses how Google, while being a lifesaver when it comes to meeting our search needs, also tracks our every move creating a massive database of everything we search.  A database, which if called upon by the government can be made available at the drop of a hat thanks to the Patriot Act.  On page 203 Battelle criticizes Google’s privacy policy, which allows Google to share clicksteam information with law enforcement if needed.  Battelle criticizes their policy basically saying it contradicts their “don’t be evil” motto because of the language used which allows Google to make the decision to share user’s search information instead of being forced to by law enforcement.  He feels Google will do what is best for Google.  I do not agree with Battelle I don’t think that Google sharing information with the government makes them evil.  If users are not doing something wrong then why should they care who Google shares their information with.  If Google is able to provide law enforcement with information that could convict a criminal and chose not to, based on principle wouldn’t that be evil?

Battelle attacks Google’s “don’t be evil” motto again when talking about Google’s relationship with China. Google chose to give into Chinese censorship rules by censoring its news site.  According to Battelle, “by working with China to omit certain sites, Google had seemingly become an accessory to evil,” (p. 206).   I do not agree with him.  By following Chinese laws Google is able to provide the best search service possible within China to the Chinese people.  If Google had not followed the Chinese laws Google would have been banned which would have been a loose loose for both China and Google.  I feel like Battelle takes Google’s “don’t be evil” motto to extremes. After all Google, first and foremost, is a business and the goal of a business is provide the best service possible to its customers and to generate profit for the company’s shareholders.

 The Future and Economy of Search 

Google, in the short time it has been around, has shot up to become the leader in search.  The word Google is not only the name of a company but is used by many as an adjective to describe search.  In the first half of his book Battelle provides a brief history of search, which surprisingly was not invented by Google.  AltaVista was a popular search engine back in the early days of search and for many reading this AltaVista probably is not the first site you think of when someone mentions search. With that being said, what does the future hold for Google…will Google always be the leader in search?

In Chapter 11 Battelle touches on what the future of search could look like.  According to Battelle, search will be everywhere from phones to cars to our stereos.  Anything digital will have the ability to search. So does that mean; Google will have its hand in everything digital?  Will Google be the largest company ever, providing search capability to all things digital?  Or will another company come in and create a better search capability that is more in sync with the search needs of non-PC based machines.  Could Google be dethroned and only thought of as the leader of early search?

In addition to the future of search Battelle also looks at the financial impact of search, not only on companies such as Google and Yahoo, but also on the business owner; especially small Internet-based companies.  Battelle really examines the impact the Google search engine has on how these companies rank based on certain words entered by the user. Battelle provides examples of how simple changes in the Google search engine can ruin a business that relied on shoppers finding their site via Google.  One such owner who had a business that sold shoes for people with large feet got really upset when he had to buy adwords because he was no longer in the top Google results.  I can understand why the owner would get upset after all being in the organic results provides a much better chance of receiving clicks than paid advertisements.  As a user, I trust organic results over paid advertisements any day.  Google on the other hand was only updating its system to protect against people who were wrongly using search engine optimization to get to the top of Google’s list. 

I wonder with companies like Google getting involved with so many things from search to advertising if the concept of organic search will be gone from future search environments.  If Google takes over the search world, providing a perfect search experience where what I want is waiting for me without me really even having to ask Google, will Google also be targeting me with unwanted advertisements?  How will I know what is a legitimate search result or an advertisement?  Will the lines be as clear in the new search world; I am not so sure.  I think the more personalized the Web becomes the creative advertisers will be. I also think we will be hit with more advertisements then ever before.   

 Connecting the dots 

As I stated in my post last week, search is what connects everything together; essentially the backbone of the Internet.  Gillmor, through his explanations of blogs and their implications on journalism and the current state of the media, along with Scoble and Israel and their views on why businesses should blog, demonstrated the media world we live in.  What other time in history have everyday people been able to question large media outlets, such as the New York Times, on why they have not embraced a new technology?  What other time in history have we been able to participate in conversations about everything from politics to the implications of new technologies?  Search provides us with the ability to find these conversations, media outlets and whatever else we desire.  Without search would blogs really work?  How would we be able to find these conversations if we could not search for them?  Without search the Internet would not be what it is today.  It will be interesting to see if Google remains on top or if some other young Stanford grad develops a new innovative search tool that is beyond our wildest dreams.