The real danger of Google

I am NOT a paranoid.

I don't like when people substitute "worry" for critical thinking. Nor do I appreciate a good conspiracy theory just because it cast a negative light on something I already don't like. I say this because I have noticed a hint, just a whiff... of anti Google sentiment of late. The blogs, the podcasts, even the main stream media... It's getting to be that the only acceptable hopeless fanbois are those of Steve Jobs. I digress.

Google is dangerous. Not for there innovation. Not for there size. Not for there efforts to index the web. Not for the information they collect on each an every one of us. Privacy is a myth, accept that. If anything Google has (and will) lead the way towards you and I being paid for the inevitable invasion of our privacy. The way they have made many tiny web content provider (bloggers) a couple extra bucks using google ads. They will do the same for
syndication of web usage statistics (of course this requires a slightly more enlightened congress, but that is coming). Again, I digress...

Google is dangerous because...

Every good idea that hasn't yet been tested by the market (sorry for the jargon) will first see light of day in a Google log files. Let me paint a scenario for you:

Mike has an idea... Candy popsicle sticks... It is so genius he can't believe nobody thought of it before. He starts choosing the color of his first two Porsches. He tells a few coworkers. Several of them don't believe that nobody has ever done it. Whether he begins to doubt himself or he just wants to begin the process of developing the idea. His first stop is Google... a search for "candy popsicle sticks". Mike crosses his fingers HOPING he doesn't get and good matches.

(In our hypothetical situation, we'll suppose that he doesn't find anything)

Meanwhile, back a the lab... Google labs, that is. Joey is running the monthly reports including one titles: "probable upcoming patents". This simple report would consist of unique search strings. Think about that for a second. Given the MILLIONS of search strings entered into Google each day, how many are unique. I don't mean unique on THAT day, I mean unique. Not even "akjsdh kasjdh" is going to be unique. But there are some that unique, and those are the good ones.

obviously, not all of them will be future patents. Some would be really obscure, mistaken literary references. Others might be fictitious aboriginal delicacies of the Mukka Lukka tribe. I assure you they would all be VERY interesting.