Scott Cleland & Ira Brodsky’s “Google’s Two Faces: Search & Destroy, Why You Can’t Trust Google Inc.”

Google is currently a publicly traded company in the United States and has become a global giant with a market capitalization that ranks among the top five in the world. Google is also considered an icon of innovation along with Apple. Since the birth of the innovative search engine “Google,” it has earned various nicknames by creating original and convenient products and services that make life easier.

Founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google has continued to attract people’s attention since its inception. Now, the term “Google” is commonly used in English to mean “to search online,” and Google has naturally permeated into our lives. The era where more people use “Google” for online information searches than those who don’t is well underway.

Living without Google’s various services such as Gmail, Google Search, Google Maps, and YouTube has become difficult. Therefore, Google continues to capture the interest of many people.

“Diverse books containing stories about Google”

Searching for “Google” in bookstores or libraries yields numerous results. Most of them cover Google’s success stories, analyze Google’s success, or discuss Google’s unique management techniques by benchmarking.

The story of Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who turned Google into the largest search site, has always been a great source of material. Moreover, since the advent of the smartphone era, Google has deeply involved itself in our lives by creating and sharing the Android smartphone operating system as open source.

Such involvement by Google naturally garnered significant interest from many people. Several books titled “How to Use Google” and similar topics have been published. In surveys targeting university students, Google consistently ranks among the top 10 companies they aspire to work for.

Google has been a successful company in the past and continues to thrive today. However, if there is one bright aspect that a giant company like Google possesses, there must also be a dark side. Light and darkness are not separate but always coexist, much like the principles of yin and yang.

“A book focusing intensively on Google’s dark side, Google’s Two Faces”

In “Google’s Two Faces: Search & Destroy, Why You Can’t Trust Google Inc.,” written by Scott Cleland and Ira Brodsky, the hidden dark side of Google beneath its success myth is gradually unveiled.

The most concerning aspect highlighted in this book is Google’s “information dominance.” By collecting personal information beyond the scope of publicly available information without users’ consent, one can sense another ambition lurking within Google.

In today’s society, where information equates to power, Google holds a considerable amount of information. Currently, it’s challenging to find companies or government agencies with enough information to counter Google. The book expresses concerns about Google’s potential to use its power in dark ways within such a monopolistic information landscape.

The book also warns of Google’s attempt to change the world in an authoritarian direction based on its monopolized information.

“Is Google truly innovative, transparent, and clean?”

The image of Google generally known to us is that of an “innovative,” “transparent,” and “clean” company. However, the image of Google portrayed in the book is the opposite of what we commonly know.

Google appears to be distant from innovation and is depicted as an opaque company. Google’s advertising services, such as “AdWords” and “AdSense,” were not originally created by Google but by a person named “Bill Gross” under the name “GoTo.com.” However, Google allegedly appropriated his ideas and violated patents by forcefully patenting them.

Even after acquiring YouTube, Google is criticized for investing heavily in acquisitions despite knowing that many videos on YouTube violate copyrights. Moreover, even after the acquisition, Google adopted a passive approach to protecting copyrights by only blocking videos after copyright owners filed complaints.

Not only in these aspects but also in many other areas, Google has faced numerous lawsuits for disregarding others’ copyrights. Google claims to have been sued by Oracle America for intentionally infringing copyrights, and it continues to face lawsuits from other companies for its persistent copyright infringement.

“Google collecting even personal information”

The most terrifying aspect of Google, according to the authors, is its ability to store all online records. By accumulating information such as users’ search terms, search locations, and age groups, Google can potentially exploit personal information.

Furthermore, Google’s Gmail service, while offered for free, scans users’ email content and displays ads tailored to them. The problem lies not in the ads themselves but in the fact that Google can see the contents of emails received by users. Additionally, the authors mention that the initial version of Gmail lacked a feature to delete received emails. After users raised complaints, Google finally added a delete button. However, it’s unclear whether the emails deleted by users were truly erased from Google’s servers or simply made invisible to users.

“Google is not transparent and innovative?”

Consistently argued throughout the book is that based on Google’s behavior, Google is far from being a transparent and innovative company. The authors point out possible problems such as Google’s accumulation of information to create a monopoly, manipulation of search terms to politically exploit the internet space, and prioritizing information Google wants to show users.

Moreover, the authors suggest that there is a possibility of Google forming alliances with certain institutions to control the world arbitrarily.

In this era where information is power, based on the belief that the concentration of power inevitably leads to corruption, the book suggests that this possibility is not impossible.

“The danger of power through information dominance?”

Ultimately, the content conveyed in this book is that Google is acquiring power through information dominance, and historically, the concentration of power inevitably leads to corruption.

Based on basic reasoning, this scenario could be entirely possible. However, if the authors had investigated how Google operates and makes decisions, it might not have been so challenging to simply tell this story.

Of course, since I have never worked at Google, I can only indirectly acquire information through books written by Google HR personnel, such as “Google Morning Begins with Freedom,” and books such as “Drawing Silicon Valley.” However, it can be noted that the content written in these books differs somewhat from the concerns raised by the authors of this book.

Nevertheless, raising such concerns would be helpful. As mentioned earlier, where there is light, there is also darkness, and through complementary processes, the world progresses.

“Google’s Two Faces: Search & Destroy, Why You Can’t Trust Google Inc.”