I couldn’t agree with you more on the issue of Google - even more than Twitter and Facebook and their censorship. Google involves the very source of information that people have access to - because, practically speaking, 90% of internet searches are done through Google, and the vast, vast majority of people never do more than click on some site mentioned on the first page or two. Thus, by shaping searches they are actually determining what information people have access to - i.e. they are censoring what they don’t want others to see, because it is inconvenient for their political views.
Google delenda est! Break it up into 20 competing companies - at least a few of those will just rank searches according to frequency, without trying to influence what people see. Do that to Google, and then the Twits and Fakebook will fall into line very quickly, lest THEY be broken up.
The way I look at it, Google is a utility - and though a private company, like the electric or water utility that we all use, it has certain duties to the public in return for its monopolistic power. So, either it stops fudging the information and acts like a utility by serving all equally, or they get accused of MASSIVE FEC violations and get broken up as a criminal enterprise (for failing to report the value of their services to the Dems). Oh, and don’t forget the charges against the top leadership - I’m sure that any enterprising prosecutor could find at least 20 different charges to make against each of them.
F#ck Google - it IS Big Brother.
Too many eggs in one basket there...it is a little frightening to consider.
When I do searches on Google, I often ignore the first or second page after glancing at them unless I am simply looking for a date of an event or some other non-contestable type of info...
I am totally against regulation except for one thing: The government to say there will be NO shaping or censorship in any way. And even that makes me squirrely.