How bad is your googling habit and what does it mean?

My work (antique dealer) would be much more difficult without Google. From images of early Nippon or Bohemian ceramic marks to recent gallery sales by known or outsider artists, nearly everything I need to know can be found via Google. I've developed an encyclopedic booklist tree to put frequently used sites close at hand. Image searches are incredibly useful in antique identification.In addition, I Google often during the day to satisfy some curiosity, find a car route, screen satellite images for abandoned structure sites in our New England area (yes, sometimes antique dealers get to play archaeologist), follow particular news stories, refresh my memory of a recipe, etc.I think Google has done a tremendous job. I like their aggressive approach to scanning and indexing libraries onto the web. Their efforts have critics, but they have certainly push other organizations to follow suit. "Knowledge wants to be free," and Google wants to give it to us free: I appreciate that. Putting entire academic and public libraries online could energize both research and its practical applications.The time from published, peer-reviewed paper to published critiques and reports of attempted replication has already gotten shorter, and public access to emerging science richer. Science education definitely needs improvement, but that's a separate issue: there is no excuse for lacking some impression of the published record on any given scientific question of concern: Google, mostly, did thatGoogle is definitely a better librarian. Google is good for the pursuit of knowledge, and I suppose an informed world is "better" for humanity. Like previous advances in the compilation and distrution of information, Google Life creates a power of influence with potential for abuse; however, the decentralized nature of Web input lets a thousand critics contend with every assertion.So I'd say Google is more than just a better librarian, even accouting for the Acquisition Librarian there, who is obsessed--to our gain. For me, Google is an invaluable resource for both work and play: for the world, Google radically promotes the distribution of knowledge.Google rocks.

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How can Google be all powerful? It offers access to multiple dissenting views on almost every question, so what Google self-interest could be considered malignant?

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I'd say Google is different in terms of scale, access and decentralization to what has gone before. Hierarchies of information gathering and distribution in the traditional media are subverted by the free and ubiquitous ability to both research and publish.As jar says, Google is on a continuum of other advances, e.g., printing press and radio, and much of its impact--including the first global "full duplex" exchange of information in real time--is inherent in the net itself.

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-William James Save lives! Click here!
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