Google, which just turned 10, has put up a news archive with old stories from major papers—an expansion of earlier efforts.
The archives go back as far as 200 years. Google is digitizing stories from newspapers just as it did for libraries. Trade-offs for the press? Perhaps. I like the idea of so many goodies going online, and it’s far, far better than another copyright battle—Google is getting permission. But will it mean less independence for newspapers, both individually and as an industry? Remains to be seen.
Privacy boost for Google users
In unequivocally good news, Google says it will retain IP-address-linked info for nine rather than 18 months; see related blog post and Techmeme roundup. Funny. Just yesterday I was hearing a radio interview during which Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that privacy was an area where search engines could compete—in areas such as retention length. Let’s just hope that the snoops in D.C. won’t thwart the trend early on.
The privacy paradox: Yes, the easier it is for old news stories to be accessed, the less privacy for Planet Earth at large. But at least we’re talking about citizen-to-citizen openness rather than simply the usual Big Bro-ish variety. Too bad that not everything in the archive is free.
Also of interest: Talk of an anti-trust suit against Google. Ouch. For retirement investment purposes, I’m a very small Google shareholder. But if the facts justify action against Google, then so be it. I myself have warned of the risk of letting one large corporation—be it Google, Amazon or anyone else—exercise too much control over content.
Google’s NBC partnership: New York Times and Techmeme roundup.
Image: CC-licensed photo from Paraflyer.
