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Speaker details Google's narrow focus
By Elizabeth Murphy Email
Collegian Staff Writer
When searching for the word "Siva" in the Google search engine, Internet users are more likely to find a link to a YouTube video of The Smashing Pumpkins than information on the god that more than one billion Hindus worship worldwide.
Siva Vaidhyanathan, associate professor of media studies and law at the University of Virginia, pointed this out in his speech, "The Googlization of Everything," Friday morning to a near-capacity audience in the Foster Auditorium. The University Libraries Colloquia Committee sponsored Vaidhyanathan's speech.
Vaidhyanathan displayed a screenshot of the results showing that The Smashing Pumpkin's 1991 music video for "Siva" tops information Web sites on the Hindu god of the same name.
"The Smashing Pumpkins were a once relevant band from Chicago," Siva Vaidhyanathan said. "There are a billion Hindus ... You would think that would be the most important thing. This gives us some indication that the Google universe does not map to the rest of the world."
Vaidhyanathan spoke to more than 100 people about Google's infiltration into the lives of the people of the world.
"Google actually has a pretty profound and perhaps disturbing role in what we consider to be valuable, true and important," he said.
Vaidhyanathan said Google users are not the consumers of Google products, they are the product.
"Millions, perhaps billions, of people use Google everyday. We are not Google's consumers; we are Google's products. The advertisers are the consumers," Vaidhyanathan said.
Google collects detailed records and information on its users, Vaidhyanathan said.
"Google knows everything about many of us and a lot about almost all of us. Google knows your interests, your passions, maybe your fetishes," he said.
Vaidhyanathan said one of his biggest gripes with the company is its lacking universality. He said he would like to see 12 year olds in South Africa have the same accessibility to the rich array of resources provided by Google that any of his privileged students at the University of Virginia have.
"We are probably not getting the best of all possible results, the global results," he said. "... If we consider the function of the Web to be a source of information about the world, it may not be ideal."
Vaidhyanathan pointed to Google's official mission statement: "To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible."
"It's a stunning mission statement for any company," he said. "But it's the universality we have to question. How universal is Google? We know it doesn't work exactly the same way in China."
Vaidhyanathan said many people are angered by the establishment of Google in China, where the government censors the Internet. He displayed a photo, which he said he does not endorse, of two men holding signs reading, "Goolag: exporting censorship, one search at a time."
"It is indicative of a growing sense of unease about the concentration of power that Google has in the world," he said.
By Elizabeth Murphy Email
Collegian Staff Writer
When searching for the word "Siva" in the Google search engine, Internet users are more likely to find a link to a YouTube video of The Smashing Pumpkins than information on the god that more than one billion Hindus worship worldwide.
Siva Vaidhyanathan, associate professor of media studies and law at the University of Virginia, pointed this out in his speech, "The Googlization of Everything," Friday morning to a near-capacity audience in the Foster Auditorium. The University Libraries Colloquia Committee sponsored Vaidhyanathan's speech.
Vaidhyanathan displayed a screenshot of the results showing that The Smashing Pumpkin's 1991 music video for "Siva" tops information Web sites on the Hindu god of the same name.
"The Smashing Pumpkins were a once relevant band from Chicago," Siva Vaidhyanathan said. "There are a billion Hindus ... You would think that would be the most important thing. This gives us some indication that the Google universe does not map to the rest of the world."
Vaidhyanathan spoke to more than 100 people about Google's infiltration into the lives of the people of the world.
"Google actually has a pretty profound and perhaps disturbing role in what we consider to be valuable, true and important," he said.
Vaidhyanathan said Google users are not the consumers of Google products, they are the product.
"Millions, perhaps billions, of people use Google everyday. We are not Google's consumers; we are Google's products. The advertisers are the consumers," Vaidhyanathan said.
Google collects detailed records and information on its users, Vaidhyanathan said.
"Google knows everything about many of us and a lot about almost all of us. Google knows your interests, your passions, maybe your fetishes," he said.
Vaidhyanathan said one of his biggest gripes with the company is its lacking universality. He said he would like to see 12 year olds in South Africa have the same accessibility to the rich array of resources provided by Google that any of his privileged students at the University of Virginia have.
"We are probably not getting the best of all possible results, the global results," he said. "... If we consider the function of the Web to be a source of information about the world, it may not be ideal."
Vaidhyanathan pointed to Google's official mission statement: "To organize the world's information and make it universally accessible."
"It's a stunning mission statement for any company," he said. "But it's the universality we have to question. How universal is Google? We know it doesn't work exactly the same way in China."
Vaidhyanathan said many people are angered by the establishment of Google in China, where the government censors the Internet. He displayed a photo, which he said he does not endorse, of two men holding signs reading, "Goolag: exporting censorship, one search at a time."
"It is indicative of a growing sense of unease about the concentration of power that Google has in the world," he said.
BTW, I just googled siva and the first thing I get Is the spanish wiki Shiva article
And Hindus seem a little over sensitive..
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