CivicActions

Google is on top and making a grand profit. Now that the numbers for Google's profits are in, it's safe to predict that Google is on top of the search game for a long time to come. So, in the great American tradition of rooting for the underdogs, let's look at Google with the eyes of an underdog. What isn't Google?

Is Google nice? They aren't evil. This is enough, right?

It's a rare thing for corporations to have a double or triple bottom line. But can you say no to billions of dollars of profit when your corporate legal framework requires you to acquire business and grow? If google can only sustain the "not evil" phase that's a victory. Maybe if Google were "nice" they wouldn't survive.

Google is like an big school of fish. Not a predator or destroyer, just a large number of small transactions in co-ordinated activities. A big school of fish isn't evil right? Maybe it causes an imbalance in an ecosystem, and maybe it just doesn't know what it's doing yet - it's only a big school of fish after all. Good for them - procreate and go forth into the world, Google!

Will the evolution of the web require a change of technology or a change of ideas? Like the question of natural evolution - does it happen in big dramatic steps or slow incremental steps? I guess there are tipping points. I wonder if Google will hit the next tipping point.

Hear me now but believe me later!
There will be a new breed of search. New search will be "better" because it will be ... nicer. What if google was like CivicActions? Open source software, open standards, broad networks of people - alligned to progressing humanity. Ok, that's google-like enough. Just need to work on the definition of "progress". That's a lot for one company to manage.

The next generation of search, like now, will be the base of internet ecosystem. We aren't used to paying for the sun, we pay the farmer. We moved down and began to commidify a basic thing we do - remember and share. We entered a new world where good and evil hasn't been figured out. Soon, we'll be commodifying not only the information, but the knowledge itself, the intellegence. Don't feel bad for the unemployed experts and researchers?

One company, hoarding all human knowledge? Scanning all libraries? Go for it and brute force your way. Gather stats on EVERYTHING. Technology is a freight train. No need to stop it now - it's us. But "more", in the end, is not enough for a school of fish or us.