Google: Walking Stick or Praying Mantis?
What is Google? The company that started out as a research project and ended up a corporation has a similar feel as those of two insects that now are in different families.
Is Google a Walking Stick or Praying Mantis?
Walking Stick:
The walking stick is a common but often overlooked insect in the world of entomology because it does not pose a problem as a pest either to the farmer or the ordinary citizen. These docile insects are strictly vegetarians feeding on berry, cherry and a variety of other leaves.
Google has typically fallen into the category of not posing a problem as a pest, but a boon of information to the net community, by digesting information that until its creation was in disarray and unwieldy to access.
There are over 3000 varieties of walking sticks identified world wide. Walking sticks are found primarily in the temperate and tropical regions.
Google has many incarnations today, is found in diverse languages, in many incarnations like toolbars, desktop search, and homepages world wide.
These creatures spend their days motionless hanging from leaves and branches waiting until dark to feed. This particular insect gets its name from its appearance, looking much like a twig or in some cases the leaves upon which it feeds.
Google appears to be a homegrown entity with its "Do No Evil" motto and an expressed desire to make it easier for the world to find the information you need by foraging through the material in cyberspace and traditional media.
The walking stick has the unusual ability of partial regeneration. If a leg is lost or damaged it will grow back after several successive molts. By molting, or shedding its skin, the walking stick is able to grow to an astounding size in just a few months.
Google's redundancy protocols with regard to data and how they store, access, and publish information, even in lite of constant failure among, data points, nodes, and hubs. Google has also grown to "astounding size" in a short period of time.
Once the skin is shed the walking stick eats its own molt. Walking sticks lay eggs which are dropped to the ground and remain there until they hatch.
Google sheds its skin in the form of updates to its search, toolbars, and other applications that are in a constant state of development. Like the eggs that are left by the Walking Stick, Google's applications are left in the community to hatch and breed suggestions for improvements to future renditions.
In many ways Google takes on the appearance of a Walking Stick, safe, innocent, non invasive.
Praying Mantis:
The praying mantis is a carnivorous insect that takes up a deceptively humble posture when it is searching for food. When at rest, the mantis' front forelegs are held up together in a posture that looks like its praying. These front legs are equipped with rows of sharp spines used to grasp its prey. They wait unmoving and are almost invisible on a leaf or a stem, ready to catch any insect that passes.
Google's posture has been crafted to be a humble one in appearance. "Do No Evil" aside, the media touted "Good Guys of Google" are in fact ready and able to strike with deadly precision any opportunity, personnel, company, or technology that passes their leaf.
When potential prey comes close enough, the mantis thrusts its pincher-like forelegs forward to catch it. The prey probably won't escape because the forelegs are so strong and armed with overlapping spines. The mantid bites the neck of its prey to paralyze it and begins to devour it. The mantis almost always starts eating the insect while it's still alive, and almost always starts eating from the insect's neck. This way, the mantis makes sure that the insect's struggle stops quickly.
Google in many ways has done this to their prey. Usenet Archives is a prime example of this tactic. Usenet was a valuable forum to discuss diverse topics, that were searched and spawned new discussions furthering progression of the web and it's community. After a short time of front page prominence, the re-styled "Google Groups" was relegated to beta status on 3rd level page, effectively hindering the prominence, and thereby the ability of this forum to sustain momentum, or infuse new users into the system. With Usenet being strangled, searchers have been forced some by ignorance others by deprivation to rely on the main search to find the information they would normally have been able to find on Usenet.
Praying mantises eat insects and other invertebrates such as other mantises, beetles, butterflies, spiders, crickets, grasshoppers, and even spiders. The praying mantises also eat vertebrates such as small tree frogs, lizards, mice and hummingbirds. Praying mantids can resemble flowers and can catch small, unknowing hummingbirds. Praying mantids also eat other nesting birds.
Here is the list of other mantises, beetles, butterflies, spiders, crickets, and in some cases birds that Google has caught.
2/2001: Deja
9/2001: Outride
2/2003: Pyra Labs
4/2003: Neotonic Software
4/2003: Applied Semantics
9/2003: Kaltix
10/2003: Sprinks
10/2003: Genius Labs
4/2004: Ignite Logic
6/2004: Baidu
7/2004: Picasa
10/2004: Keyhole
Google's latest maturation stage of the egg we know as the "Toolbar" in beta form has an auto link feature. This feature when invoked automatically looks for ISBN's, VIN's, and addressed that are not linked to additional pages. Initially Barnes and Noble was caught in the crossfire. Without their permission or due notice, Google was redirecting ISBN's from their site to Amazon.com, a direct competitor. In the case of VIN's, the link goes to Carfax.com. Unlinked addresses go to Google Maps when clicked.
The question regarding this newest development is "What next?" Will the toolbar when released out of beta have the autolink feature as a "suggested installation"? When addresses are redirected to Google Maps are they going to have Adwords inserted on it, or a link for more "contextual keyword" options here link?
The attitude of one staff member as quoted regarding the hijacked links was "They should have been linked anyway". Who is Google to determine what should and should not be linked? I find this type of thinking akin to infodgemony. With so much of the world's information being locked up into proprietary services controlled by Google, how long will it be until we are no longer able to access what is rightfully ours without giving up our privacy rights or paying for all we see?
Either Google needs to be forthright about their intentions or change the company motto. The willful manipulation of digital property without the express consent of the parties affected is a direct violation of the millennium Act, and the violations should be prosecuted or at the very least monetarily compensated for the misdirection of traffic.
Google. Walking Stick or Praying Mantis? It's time to define.
Is Google a Walking Stick or Praying Mantis?
Walking Stick:
The walking stick is a common but often overlooked insect in the world of entomology because it does not pose a problem as a pest either to the farmer or the ordinary citizen. These docile insects are strictly vegetarians feeding on berry, cherry and a variety of other leaves.
Google has typically fallen into the category of not posing a problem as a pest, but a boon of information to the net community, by digesting information that until its creation was in disarray and unwieldy to access.
There are over 3000 varieties of walking sticks identified world wide. Walking sticks are found primarily in the temperate and tropical regions.
Google has many incarnations today, is found in diverse languages, in many incarnations like toolbars, desktop search, and homepages world wide.
These creatures spend their days motionless hanging from leaves and branches waiting until dark to feed. This particular insect gets its name from its appearance, looking much like a twig or in some cases the leaves upon which it feeds.
Google appears to be a homegrown entity with its "Do No Evil" motto and an expressed desire to make it easier for the world to find the information you need by foraging through the material in cyberspace and traditional media.
The walking stick has the unusual ability of partial regeneration. If a leg is lost or damaged it will grow back after several successive molts. By molting, or shedding its skin, the walking stick is able to grow to an astounding size in just a few months.
Google's redundancy protocols with regard to data and how they store, access, and publish information, even in lite of constant failure among, data points, nodes, and hubs. Google has also grown to "astounding size" in a short period of time.
Once the skin is shed the walking stick eats its own molt. Walking sticks lay eggs which are dropped to the ground and remain there until they hatch.
Google sheds its skin in the form of updates to its search, toolbars, and other applications that are in a constant state of development. Like the eggs that are left by the Walking Stick, Google's applications are left in the community to hatch and breed suggestions for improvements to future renditions.
In many ways Google takes on the appearance of a Walking Stick, safe, innocent, non invasive.
Praying Mantis:
The praying mantis is a carnivorous insect that takes up a deceptively humble posture when it is searching for food. When at rest, the mantis' front forelegs are held up together in a posture that looks like its praying. These front legs are equipped with rows of sharp spines used to grasp its prey. They wait unmoving and are almost invisible on a leaf or a stem, ready to catch any insect that passes.
Google's posture has been crafted to be a humble one in appearance. "Do No Evil" aside, the media touted "Good Guys of Google" are in fact ready and able to strike with deadly precision any opportunity, personnel, company, or technology that passes their leaf.
When potential prey comes close enough, the mantis thrusts its pincher-like forelegs forward to catch it. The prey probably won't escape because the forelegs are so strong and armed with overlapping spines. The mantid bites the neck of its prey to paralyze it and begins to devour it. The mantis almost always starts eating the insect while it's still alive, and almost always starts eating from the insect's neck. This way, the mantis makes sure that the insect's struggle stops quickly.
Google in many ways has done this to their prey. Usenet Archives is a prime example of this tactic. Usenet was a valuable forum to discuss diverse topics, that were searched and spawned new discussions furthering progression of the web and it's community. After a short time of front page prominence, the re-styled "Google Groups" was relegated to beta status on 3rd level page, effectively hindering the prominence, and thereby the ability of this forum to sustain momentum, or infuse new users into the system. With Usenet being strangled, searchers have been forced some by ignorance others by deprivation to rely on the main search to find the information they would normally have been able to find on Usenet.
Praying mantises eat insects and other invertebrates such as other mantises, beetles, butterflies, spiders, crickets, grasshoppers, and even spiders. The praying mantises also eat vertebrates such as small tree frogs, lizards, mice and hummingbirds. Praying mantids can resemble flowers and can catch small, unknowing hummingbirds. Praying mantids also eat other nesting birds.
Here is the list of other mantises, beetles, butterflies, spiders, crickets, and in some cases birds that Google has caught.
2/2001: Deja
9/2001: Outride
2/2003: Pyra Labs
4/2003: Neotonic Software
4/2003: Applied Semantics
9/2003: Kaltix
10/2003: Sprinks
10/2003: Genius Labs
4/2004: Ignite Logic
6/2004: Baidu
7/2004: Picasa
10/2004: Keyhole
Google's latest maturation stage of the egg we know as the "Toolbar" in beta form has an auto link feature. This feature when invoked automatically looks for ISBN's, VIN's, and addressed that are not linked to additional pages. Initially Barnes and Noble was caught in the crossfire. Without their permission or due notice, Google was redirecting ISBN's from their site to Amazon.com, a direct competitor. In the case of VIN's, the link goes to Carfax.com. Unlinked addresses go to Google Maps when clicked.
The question regarding this newest development is "What next?" Will the toolbar when released out of beta have the autolink feature as a "suggested installation"? When addresses are redirected to Google Maps are they going to have Adwords inserted on it, or a link for more "contextual keyword" options here link?
The attitude of one staff member as quoted regarding the hijacked links was "They should have been linked anyway". Who is Google to determine what should and should not be linked? I find this type of thinking akin to infodgemony. With so much of the world's information being locked up into proprietary services controlled by Google, how long will it be until we are no longer able to access what is rightfully ours without giving up our privacy rights or paying for all we see?
Either Google needs to be forthright about their intentions or change the company motto. The willful manipulation of digital property without the express consent of the parties affected is a direct violation of the millennium Act, and the violations should be prosecuted or at the very least monetarily compensated for the misdirection of traffic.
Google. Walking Stick or Praying Mantis? It's time to define.
posted by Badfinch at 10:15 AM
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