Let's say you have done so well in your profession that TIME magazine tells you that they are putting you on the cover. Proud, eh? What an honor.
But suppose when the magazine comes out with your picture on the cover a bold caption reads "Can we trust this person?"
Oh, oh, how would you feel now?
That is just what happened to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, creators of Google, the internet searching company. There they are on the front of the February 20, 2006, issue, and there is a caption that says "Can we trust Google with our secrets?" Wow what a slap down. Isn't that a nice reward for inventing something so valuable that it has earned you ten billion dollars, each, in just a few years.
Google, their company, knows us all. It reads millions of pages of internet documents, AND remembers them, and will spit them back to you whenever you ask. Within a few minutes of my posting this entry, if you were to search for references to Larry and Sergey, you would be offered a link this entry, and every other one they are in, including Time magazine.
If you haven't Googled anything, you haven't been on line for very long.
For being so creative and revolutionizing the way we read, research, and store data, they are suddenly suspect. Other lines in the article read "...calling into question their motto 'Don't be Evil'", and "How it could stumble."
So you're on the cover of Time next week? So sorry.
6 comments:
Thanks, I'll remember that next time TIME phones me.... hehe
Jackie
It's just another way of surpressing freedom of speech!
sometimes the media can be so cruel
Deb
the internet would not be the internet if Google did not exist. It is the search engine; the one and only one that I use. Never cared for Time magazine
betty
Chuck, while I understand the point you have made, have you actually read and understood the article(s)? In spite of the obvious liberal bias displayed by the authors and the magazine, that is. The issues of self-censorship by Google and Yahoo in deference to China and the actual censoring and release of information to a foreign government enabling said government to prosecute its citizens for rights that we in the USA take for granted are , or should be, of concern to all who believe that freedom is essential for the future viability of human civilization on this ball of mud.
See comment below by old dog: Google has to comply with the censorship of China in order to work there. If they comply, and if they do their magic there, as they have elsewhere, maybe they will help create the knowlege that freedom of ideas is good for everyone. I think TIME did Google a mis-service to cast doubts on their motives. chuck.
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