Andrew Orlowski

Collected Journalism

Tag: google

  • Obama administration joins Google

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Steve Jobs may have engineered the most audacious reverse-takeover in tech history when Apple “acquired” NeXT in 1996. Within a year, Jobs and his NeXT colleagues had purged Apple executives from all the key positions (although the chief accountant remained – which may tell you something about chief accountants). But that’s small beer compared to Google’s acquisition of the Obama Administration.

    …Read more at The Register… Read More

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  • Google’s doing to Twitterbook what it’s doing to copyright

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Google has two prongs to its long-term strategy, but Wave, the “digital dashboard” it unveiled last week, casts light on a third.

    One strategy is to drive down the value of copyright material on the internet to zero. Google has a ruthless and calculating view of the real value of stuff. It reasons that if all we do on the net is talk to each other, then it’s merely fulfilling the role of a switchboard operator at a Soviet-era state … Read More

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  • “Journalism can and should bite any hand that tries to feed it, and it should bite a government hand most viciously”

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Google, the nemesis of newspapers, was at the Congress yesterday, to turn a blonde deaf ear to their troubles. The company’s pin-up VP of products Marissa Meyer described quite a bright future to the Senate’s commerce committee – but it’s a bright future for Google, and people with a lot of time fiddling with their computers. Also testifying was creator of The Wire David Simon.

    Let’s contrast how each of them addressed the crisis.

    Meyer said Google’s policy “first and … Read More

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  • Newspapers: David Simon vs Google

    by

    Andrew Orlowski

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    Google, the nemesis of newspapers, was at the Congress yesterday, to turn a blonde deaf ear to their troubles. The company’s pin-up VP of products Marissa Meyer described quite a bright future to the Senate’s commerce committee – but it’s a bright future for Google, and people with a lot of time fiddling with their computers. Also testifying was creator of The Wire David Simon.

    Let’s contrast how each of them addressed the crisis.

    Meyer said Google’s policy “first and … Read More

    Continue reading »

  • Google cranks up the Consensus Engine

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Image from Google's 2006 analyst presentation

    Google this week admitted that its staff will pick and choose what appears in its search results. It’s a historic statement – and nobody has yet grasped its significance.

    Not so very long ago, Google disclaimed responsibility for its search results by explaining that these were chosen by a computer algorithm. The disclaimer lives on at Google News, where we are assured that:

    The selection and placement of stories on this page were determined automatically by a computer program.

    A … Read More

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  • ‘Parasitic’ Google feels TV’s wrath

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    Andrew Orlowski

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    Your reporter holds TV executives in as much esteem as a flesh-eating virus. But even in the uniquely clueless world of television, they’re finally waking up to Google’s ‘parasitic’ nature. C4 chief Andy Duncan has become the latest to awake from his slumber. The problem? Duncan’s “cure” will probably only make Google stronger.

    Duncan says that Google sucks billions out of the UK economy without making so much as a 30-second trailer in return. Duncan followed Michael Grade – who … Read More

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