Inside Google

Google: Behind the Screen (full documentary)

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This is the 4th of a series of posts about Google.

The 1st post was The Internet is Killing Our Culture — Andrew Keen‘s presentation from the Authors @Google series.

The 2nd article asked: Is Google Evil? and was an op-ed piece discussing some recent news reports, issues and videos surrounding Google.

The 3rd was Inside Google’s Don’t Be Evil extreme caricature video that was played on Times Square and posted on YouTube.

Today, I want to bring your attention to one of the more comprehensive looks at Google.

Google: Behind the Screen is a 50 min documentary by the Dutch film maker Ijsbrand van Veelen and is a well made and rather balanced point of view without avoiding all of the major issues above.

The movie asks a number of important questions such as “How can you convince people that Google isn’t a Big Brother company?”

It also includes a variety of interesting interviews with Marissa Mayer, Vint Cerf, Ian Brown (Open Rights Group), Brewster Kahle (founder of Internet Archive) and others covering topics such as page rank, targeted advertising, life at Google, user privacy, machine translation, the story of Don’t Be Evil, book search, the danger of Google’s monopoly, Google Earth and so on.

Hope you find it as enjoyable and informative as I did!

So, what do you think:

Is Google Evil?

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Inside Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” Video

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I recently published an article asking Is Google Evil?

Well, the Inside Google watchdog mentioned in the article has been lobbying congress to mandate a “Do Not Track Me List.” As part of their public campaign the group also created a video which they played on the big screen at Times Square and posted on YouTube.

The video is titled “Don’t Be Evil.”

On their blog Inside Google asks:

“Do you want Google or any other online company looking over your shoulder and tracking your every move online just so it can increase its profits? Consumers have a right to privacy. They should control how their information is gathered and what it is used for.

[…]

It’s time to create a ‘Do Not Track Me’ list to prevent online companies from gathering our personal information, just as Congress had the Federal Trade Commission create a Do Not Call list to prevent intrusive telemarketers from invading consumers’ privacy.”

So, what do you think?

Is Google Evil?

I have to admit that I personally find Eric Schmidt‘s extreme caricature as a child-preying perv not only completely unwarranted but also rather distasteful. On the other hand, putting the video to the side, I have to admit that I am increasingly apprehensive about Google’s recent trajectory not only with respect to privacy but also ethics and legality…

And what about you? How do you feel about Google, Eric Schmidt and/or the video above?

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