September 13, 2003

It's time to offer a slightly belated toast to Google, which celebrated its fifth birthday last Sunday. From nothing, it has grown to being arguably the most powerful company on the internet.

According to Nielsen NetRatings (nielsen-netratings.com), Google has just under 30 per cent of the search- engine market, about the same as Yahoo, with AOL in third place on 19 per cent. But both Yahoo’s and AOL’s searches are powered by Google.

As most people arrive at websites via a search engine, that means any site not listed by Google might as well not exist. This is not a very healthy state of affairs and is now being used for law enforcement.

Last week, Google removed links to "Kazaa Lite" software from its listings, because the owners say it breaches the copyright of the full program. There is some irony in this. Kazaa is a file-swapping program similar to the original Napster, and some of its users in the US are facing prosecution for illegally downloading music files.

Although there is no charge for using Kazaa, the company behind it makes money from advertising that is automatically displayed on users’ computers. The "lite" version has no advertisements, which means that the company that developed Kazaa receives no income. No wonder it wants to clamp down on the copycats. The method it is using, though, sets a worrying precedent. Currently, Google catalogues in excess of three billion web pages, many of which contain pirate software, pornography or information that could be useful to criminals or to terrorists.

It would be easy to make a case for the removal of Google links to some of these sites so that it would be harder to find, say, Nazi propaganda or paedophilia pictures. But the internet is global, and what I find unacceptable is not going to be the same as, for instance, a US Christian fundamentalist or the Saudi Arabian government. It is certainly a matter for concern if censorship is being carried out by a private company, such as Google.

There are already question marks over some of Google’s methods. Its success is based on providing relevant search results. The exact methods it uses to do that are a closely guarded secret, but are based on measuring the popularity of web pages. It is hard to criticise Google for giving users what they want, but it does have side-effects. The web, for instance, is a great resource for comparing products, but try a Google search for reviews of whatever you are planning to buy and you will have to go through screen after screen of links to online shops before anything independent and useful appears. It is also increasingly hard for anybody launching a website to get listed on Google.

To a certain extent, this simply reflects the massive growth of the web, but Google’s influence now extends far beyond its search-engine roots. It owns the archives of Usenet and its thousands of discussion groups which, a few years ago, had more users than the web.

It also owns Blogger, the most popular tool for online diary writers. After a dodgy start, Google’s news service is becoming the best place to track thousands of online publications. It has recently added an e-mail alert service, which is superb for news junkies like me. And do not forget Froogle, its shopping directory, or its plans to provide voice searches via mobile phone. Managing without Google would be hard, but I still worry about the power it wields online. There are signs, however, that it is going to face a fight from Yahoo, which now owns Alltheweb, AltaVista, Overture and Inktomi, giving it the capability to end the relationship with Google.

Yahoo is probably the only company that can threaten Google’s monopoly. That challenge could only be good for the internet, because without it why would Google bother to continue innovating?

Source: The Scotsmen.co.uk

        

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