Comments on: Logrolling in Our Time – The Sequel http://www.ratdiary.com/2008/09/25/logrolling-in-our-time-the-sequel/ Homo homini rodentius est Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:20:21 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Aatom http://www.ratdiary.com/2008/09/25/logrolling-in-our-time-the-sequel/#comment-9561 Aatom Mon, 29 Sep 2008 23:57:48 +0000 http://www.ratdiary.com/2008/09/25/logrolling-in-our-time-the-sequel/#comment-9561 Hmm. Well, you are certainly more of an expert than I am on these tech matters. I suppose someone should be watchdogging a phenomenon like Google, and I can't imagine a better one than you. Hmm. Well, you are certainly more of an expert than I am on these tech matters. I suppose someone should be watchdogging a phenomenon like Google, and I can’t imagine a better one than you.

]]> By: Sprague D http://www.ratdiary.com/2008/09/25/logrolling-in-our-time-the-sequel/#comment-9449 Sprague D Sat, 27 Sep 2008 17:28:17 +0000 http://www.ratdiary.com/2008/09/25/logrolling-in-our-time-the-sequel/#comment-9449 Aatom, Google is a symptom, an emblem, of a general trend in dodgy values that underpin the New Economy. They have enormous and growing influence as the gatekeeper to the online economy, but operate practically in secret. Their public face is a wall of beneficent PR that people, including journalists apparently, are too willing to lap up. You're absolutely right that Google's self-interested posturing is not unique -- what's unique is how brazen they are about it. Underlying this is a more general concern (addressed [<a href="http://www.ratdiary.com/2007/06/09/the-end-of-culture-as-we-knew-it/" rel="nofollow">here</a>] and [<a href="http://www.ratdiary.com/2007/08/01/tech-porn/" rel="nofollow">here</a>]) that New Economy entities like Google and Craigslist are very efficient at undermining the economics of traditional media -- institutions that developed standards over decades -- leaving us vulnerable to the slipshod, fly-by-night New Media wannabes that roost waiting to replace them. It's not a far jump from undermining economics to undermining values. Seeing the New York Times willingly compromise its standards in support of Google's drive toward monopoly was too much irony to bear. Aatom, Google is a symptom, an emblem, of a general trend in dodgy values that underpin the New Economy. They have enormous and growing influence as the gatekeeper to the online economy, but operate practically in secret. Their public face is a wall of beneficent PR that people, including journalists apparently, are too willing to lap up. You’re absolutely right that Google’s self-interested posturing is not unique — what’s unique is how brazen they are about it.

Underlying this is a more general concern (addressed [here] and [here]) that New Economy entities like Google and Craigslist are very efficient at undermining the economics of traditional media — institutions that developed standards over decades — leaving us vulnerable to the slipshod, fly-by-night New Media wannabes that roost waiting to replace them. It’s not a far jump from undermining economics to undermining values.

Seeing the New York Times willingly compromise its standards in support of Google’s drive toward monopoly was too much irony to bear.

]]> By: Aatom http://www.ratdiary.com/2008/09/25/logrolling-in-our-time-the-sequel/#comment-9396 Aatom Fri, 26 Sep 2008 21:56:26 +0000 http://www.ratdiary.com/2008/09/25/logrolling-in-our-time-the-sequel/#comment-9396 You sure do have some beef with Google, huh? I'm not sure I see anything here aside from sloppy journalism. What multi-billion dollar company wouldn't try to manipulate it's own PR this way? If the press is complicit in manipulation of this sort, blaming the company is a bit like blaming the mistress instead of the husband, it seems to me. You sure do have some beef with Google, huh? I’m not sure I see anything here aside from sloppy journalism. What multi-billion dollar company wouldn’t try to manipulate it’s own PR this way? If the press is complicit in manipulation of this sort, blaming the company is a bit like blaming the mistress instead of the husband, it seems to me.

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