＊BusinessWeek誌2007年4月9日号
英Economist誌の最新号（ 2007年9月1日号）の表紙と，米BusinessWeekの2007年4月9日号の表紙である。
ともにカバーストーリーの見出しが，“Who's afraid of Google?”。裏返せば，やっぱりGoogleは恐い存在であると言うことか。
英Economist誌の記事は，おそらく日本語版エコノミスト誌で紹介されるだろうから，触りの部分を。
伝統的な企業にとって，Googleは嫌な存在である。
Television networks, book publishers and newspaper owners feel that Google has grown by using their content without paying for it. Telecoms firms such as America's AT&T and Verizon are miffed that Google prospers, in their eyes, by free-riding on the bandwidth that they provide
皆にとって恐いのは，自分の個人情報を広範に集められて無制限に利用されるかもしれないことである。
Google is often compared to Microsoft (another enemy, incidentally); but its evolution is actually closer to that of the banking industry. Just as financial institutions grew to become repositories of people's money, and thus guardians of private information about their finances, Google is now turning into a custodian of a far wider and more intimate range of information about individuals. Yes, this applies also to rivals such as Yahoo! and Microsoft. But Google, through the sheer speed with which it accumulates the treasure of information, will be the one to test the limits of what society can tolerate.
◇参考
・Who's afraid of Google?(Economist.com）
・Is Google Too Powerful? (BusinessWeek.com）
・Who's Afraid of Google? Everyone（WIRED)
タグ：google
