TheArchitect.co.uk - Jorgen Thelin's weblog

Is Google Turning Evil?

It sounds like Google is having an interesting week on the PR front! Who knows whether these two news stories are connected in some way?

Opposition To Google Library Project Intensifies

29 August 2005

Google Inc.'s book-copying library project has come under fire by two more publishers' groups, with one raising the possibility of legal action.

The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers and the Association of American University Presses have joined the Association of American Publishers in denouncing Google's copying of books without first seeking permission from the copyright holder.

[Opposition To Google Library Project Intensifies - Antone Gonsalves - TechWeb News]

Google Announces Plan To Destroy All Information It Can't Index

31 August 2005

Executives at Google, the rapidly growing online-search company that promises to "organize the world's information," announced Monday the latest step in their expansion effort: a far-reaching plan to destroy all the information it is unable to index.

The new project, dubbed Google Purge, will join such popular services as Google Images, Google News, and Google Maps, which catalogs the entire surface of the Earth using high-resolution satellites.

As a part of Purge's first phase, executives will destroy all copyrighted materials that cannot be searched by Google.

"A year ago, Google offered to scan every book on the planet for its Google Print project. Now, they are promising to burn the rest," John Battelle wrote in his widely read "Searchblog." "Thanks to Google Purge, you'll never have to worry that your search has missed some obscure book, because that book will no longer exist. And the same goes for movies, art, and music."

[Google Announces Plan To Destroy All Information It Can't Index - The Onion]