Web commentator Nicholas Carr argues, a little too cleverly, that Google’s aims are rather like benevolent dictators:
Google differs from Microsoft in at least one very important way. The ends that Microsoft has pursued are commercial ends. It’s been in it for the money. Google, by contrast, has a strong messianic bent. The Omnigoogle is not just out to make oodles of money; it’s on a crusade – to liberate information for the masses – and is convinced of its righteousness in pursuing its cause. Depending on your point of view as you look forward to the next ten years, you’ll find that either comforting or discomforting.
Google wants to liberate information for the masses? Perhaps some of the staff do, but what about the firm’s behaviour in a country like China?
Carr’s arguments, like so much of so-called web commentary in the West, utterly ignores the vast majority of the world.