[Web4lib] RE: Another Google question

[Karen Coyle]

Mike Taylor wrote:

>No.  And that's the whole point.  We couple of hundred information
>professionals on this list care deeply about this stuff, but we do
>need to come to terms with the fact that no-one else does.  As far as
>the other 5,999,999,980 people out there are concerned, Google is just
>fine.  If we pretend otherwise, we're hiding out heads in the sand.
>  
>
The fact that they think it's fine doesn't make it fine. Ignorance may 
be bliss, but it's a lousy basis for what purports to be an "information 
society." Most people have no idea how Google searching works -- to them 
it is magic. And, like what they see on TV or read in the newspaper, 
they believe it all. The role of professionals is to counter the 
ignorance and not get caught up in it. I think the discoveries that have 
surfaced here are significant, and we should find a way to make them 
more visible.

People's beliefs aside, these flaws in Google can make a real 
difference. People use Google to make business decisions, and even legal 
decisions. The proposal by the AAP to the copyright office on dealing 
with orphan works actually says that part of "due diligence" in 
determining copyright could be doing a Google (or Yahoo) search. I think 
this is incredible, given what we've discussed here, and I'm sure that 
AAP has no idea how inaccurate such a search can be. If you think that 
no one would rely on Google for such a thing, note that there is 
currently a lawsuit that is based on the supposed workings of the 
robots.txt file and how it interacts with the Internet Archive (good 
discussion on Seth Finkelstein's blog: 
http://www.sethf.com/infothought/blog/). It's only a matter of time 
before we see someone claiming a Google search as proof in some lawsuit. 
The internet technologies have become part of our landscape, integrated 
with what we do and how we do it. People search Google for medical 
information, for pete's sake, it's not like it is of no consequence.

*aaarrgggghhhh*

kc

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Karen Coyle / Digital Library Consultant
kcoyle at kcoyle.net http://www.kcoyle.net
ph.: 510-540-7596
fx.: 510-848-3913
mo.: 510-435-8234
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