Description
Book SynopsisExamines the ways we have used and embraced Google - and the growing resistance to its expansion across the globe. This title exposes the dark side of our Google fantasies, raising red flags about issues of intellectual property and the much-touted Google Book Search.
Trade Review"An important book. While a number of excellent histories about the emergence of Google have been published ... few writers have tried to take a comprehensive and critical look at the wider impact on society of Google's vast ambition 'to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.'... Vaidhyanathan's perspective as an East Coast academic outside the group-think of Silicon Valley is a valuable one. He is a clear writer with an engaging voice, and a good guide for this peek behind the wizard's curtain." San Jose Mercury News "This book is in no way an attack on Google but more like a parent asking a child, 'What do you want to do with your life?' then going through all the concerns one by one. Strongly recommended." Library Journal "Siva Vaidhyanathan ... thinks we've become far too dependent on an arrogant, barely regulated company that gathers and stored tons of personal information about us." -- Nick Eaton Seattle Post-Intelligencer "A stimulating and controversial book." Times Higher Education
Table of ContentsPreface
Introduction: The Gospel of Google
1. Render unto Caesar: How Google Came to Rule the Web
2. Google’s Ways and Means: Faith in Aptitude and Technology
3. The Googlization of Us: Universal Surveillance and Infrastructural Imperialism
4. The Googlization of the World: Prospects for a Global Public Sphere
5. The Googlization of Knowledge: The Future of Books
6. The Googlization of Memory: Information Overload, Filters, and the Fracturing of Knowledge
Conclusion: The Human Knowledge Project
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
