blahblahblah
In collaboration with the Milano-based Ippolita Collective, Patrice Riemens has embarked in translating their book about Google in English. He says:
“No idea if and where it will be published in book form, but for the time being I am sending the translation, in its first “Quick ‘n’ Dirty” manifestation, to Nettime-l as a ‘feuilleton’. Here’s the first instaltment.”
Ippolita Collective
The Dark Side of Google
Introduction
Google is the best known and most intensively used search engine of the Internet, so much so that it has, over the past few years, managed to become the principal access point to the Web. Surfers world-wide have become completely accustomed to its sober and reassuring interface, and to the unobtrusive yet ubiquitous advertisements adorning its margins. Its users have massively taken to its convenient ancillary services, and its use has become habitual to the point of an automatism: “if you don’t know, search it on Google!”. People will also ‘Google’ instead of checking the post-it they put on the fridge, or looking into their diary, search the yellow pages or consult the Encyclopaedia Britannica now gathering dust on the shelve in the company of other hard-wired reference books that have become just too awkward to handle.
Google has managed to exploit this craving for simplicity to the tilt. It aspires to be the perfect and ultimate search engine, that is able to understand precisely the query of its users and give them what they require in a fraction of a second.
Download the pdf to read the full introduction.
—————————————————————————————————-
the_dark_side_of_google_chapter1
—————————————————————————————————-