Google Books a Pressure Point
November 3, 2009
SiliconValley.com’s “Desire to Scan Old Books Has Critics Casting Google as Goliath” provides an interesting insight into scale. The meaning of “scale” means big. Google is a cutting edge company because it operates at scale.The company has been focused on big data for more than a decade. Now the light bulb has been turned on. Most of Google’s competitors do not work at scale, although companies like Amazon, Microsoft and Yahoo are working overtime to convert their existing systems so they too operate at scale. The challenge is that Google’s infrastructure is “as is”. Most competitors are in “to be” mode.
The SiliconValley.com article makes clear that scale is the reason that Google Books has become a problem for publishers, competitors, authors, and rights holders, among others. For me the most interesting comment in the article was:
“It really took something this big and grand to show that Google does have problems, and does have vulnerabilities, and can be exploitative,” Vaidhyanathan [law professor] said. “I’m as surprised as anybody that this turned out to be the moment in which Google’s true nature came to light.”
In my opinion, these types of write ups are useful. I wonder what critics of Google have been doing for the last decade. Google Books is not a new project. What’s new is that observers are now in the same position as a person who hears a sonic boom and looks into the sky to see the aircraft. The problem is that the sonic boom alerts the observer that an aircraft has passed, not where it is or where it is going.
Google Books is not an end game. Google has more options to exercise.
Stephen Arnold, November 3, 2009
Nope, a freebie.
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