The internet is a massive network of unregulated information–billions of pages of information scattered on millions of computers linked together throughout the world. When you’re out looking for specific information on a particular topic, it can be very difficult to find. And so suppose a very inteligent fellow created a program which could ingeniously sort through the billions of pages on the internet and find you, almost always, exactly what you’re looking for. And further suppose this fellow–we’ll call him Joe–decided to provide this program to everyone in the world–for free.
Now, for each subject one might search for, there might be millions of pages, some more helpful to the average searcher and others not so helpful. And so Joe’s program ranks all the pages on each subject in order of their helpfulness–starting from the most helpful to the least.
Now, Joe’s lists become quite popular, and a many people throughout the world, wanting to find pages, go first to Joe’s list for their search. What this means is that Joe’s opinion of which sites are most helpful has a real influence on what information people use.
Now suppose that some people who owned their own websites and felt themselves quite important decided to complain to the government about Joe. “Mister Government,” they say,”Joe’s lists don’t accurately show just how important our sites are. Make him change the way he makes his lists.”
Now, Joe replies, “That’s ridiculous! This list reflects what I feel people want to know when they’re looking for information. My list has become quite popular and I’m millions of websites would like to be higher up on my rankings. But I can’t please everyone. If people don’t like the way my lists work, they can make their own lists. I don’t make anyone come to my site.”
The wise path for a government would be to listen to Joe and leave him alone, ignoring the egos of those whine about Joe’s lists. Let them make their own lists.
But the shocking thing is that this story’s true, except that instead of Joe, legal action is being taken against Google in this very way.
If you can’t believe this sort of thing would actually happen in this world, read this story. Crazy.
a ridiculous example of anti-trust law being used against liberty
The internet is a massive network of unregulated information–billions of pages of information scattered on millions of computers linked together throughout the world. When you’re out looking for specific information on a particular topic, it can be very difficult to find. And so suppose a very inteligent fellow created a program which could ingeniously sort through the billions of pages on the internet and find you, almost always, exactly what you’re looking for. And further suppose this fellow–we’ll call him Joe–decided to provide this program to everyone in the world–for free.
Now, for each subject one might search for, there might be millions of pages, some more helpful to the average searcher and others not so helpful. And so Joe’s program ranks all the pages on each subject in order of their helpfulness–starting from the most helpful to the least.
Now, Joe’s lists become quite popular, and a many people throughout the world, wanting to find pages, go first to Joe’s list for their search. What this means is that Joe’s opinion of which sites are most helpful has a real influence on what information people use.
Now suppose that some people who owned their own websites and felt themselves quite important decided to complain to the government about Joe. “Mister Government,” they say,”Joe’s lists don’t accurately show just how important our sites are. Make him change the way he makes his lists.”
Now, Joe replies, “That’s ridiculous! This list reflects what I feel people want to know when they’re looking for information. My list has become quite popular and I’m millions of websites would like to be higher up on my rankings. But I can’t please everyone. If people don’t like the way my lists work, they can make their own lists. I don’t make anyone come to my site.”
The wise path for a government would be to listen to Joe and leave him alone, ignoring the egos of those whine about Joe’s lists. Let them make their own lists.
But the shocking thing is that this story’s true, except that instead of Joe, legal action is being taken against Google in this very way.
If you can’t believe this sort of thing would actually happen in this world, read this story. Crazy.
Related Posts: