Is Google Getting Educational?
Google has unveiled its new plan to put every book ever published on to the web as well as to launch the Google News Archive Search- the web-based tool that allows users to explore existing digitised newspaper articles spanning the last 200 years and more recent online content.
The search results for newspaper articles will be based on free or subscribe method and will give the users an access to information from hundreds of different news sources (exact number of sources is confidential), such as major news papers & news aggregators, sites that collect and display news stories from multiple sources.
Articles about the same event, free and charged-for, will be grouped together and displayed side by side.
Articles from commercial sources will have a clear price indication and will be based on search relevance and not on partnerships with companies.
This announcement produced various reactions.
On one hand there are supporters who say that it’s democratized and convenient way to access information and books for as many people as possible at the least cost.
On the another hand, many are concerned about potential intellectual property infringements together with the amount of information that Google now controls.
The road to hell is always paved with good intentions, and this is exactly what happens here.
In order to succeed, Google has to learn from its PPC mistakes and find a right balance between paid for and free information, as
for some it’s going to be the major source of information and knowledge, hence free access is crucial.
Intellectual property is not always ethically justified as it deprives the weak & poor from growing and developing. Therefore the idea of putting every book ever published on a web looks as an excellent opportunity for all. Knowledge should be a norm not a privilege.
