First, company employees explain that Google doesn’t produce information, it merely filters websites according to popularity. That’s why, say, if you search for “September 11″, the first “hit” might be the site of a conspiracy theorist, simply because that site is the buzz of the internet. In a workplace with masseurs and volleyball courts, where employees are encouraged to spend one day of their working week doing something they love, Google strives for neutrality.
Even so, concerns are surfacing. Google is huge, with offshoots including Google Earth (which zooms into any location via archived satellite images) and Machine Translation (aiming to provide accurate translations of documents). Will this enormous store of information infringe on people’s privacy? Will governments abuse it? What about terrorists?
To these worthwhile questions, Google employees struggle to give convincing answers. Their stuttered responses suggest the bosses need to spend more time addressing the ethics of their work. Google’s quasi-motto, “Don’t be evil”, is all well and good, but it’s worth remembering that one man’s evil is another man’s virtue.
The best point is made by Vint Cerf, the man dubbed the father of the internet and a vice-president at Google since 2004. He agrees that information can be manipulated, noting that the makers of this program will be able to manipulate their interviews in the editing suite. One smart cookie.