In the beginning, the World Wide Web was exciting and open to the point
of anarchy, a vast and intimidating repository of unindexed confusion.
Into this creative chaos came Google with its dazzling mission—“To
organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible”—and
its much-quoted motto, “Don’t be evil.” In this provocative book, Siva
Vaidhyanathan examines the ways we have used and embraced Google—and the
growing resistance to its expansion across the globe. He exposes the
dark side of our Google fantasies, raising red flags about issues of
intellectual property and the much-touted Google Book Search. He
assesses Google’s global impact, particularly in China, and explains the
insidious effect of Googlization on the way we think. Finally,
Vaidhyanathan proposes the construction of an Internet ecosystem
designed to benefit the whole world and keep one brilliant and powerful
company from falling into the “evil” it pledged to avoid.