Digiwonder?

Quick– what was the top search on Google in '05?

A) Britney Spears?

B) Hurricane Katrina?

C) Janet Jackson?

D) xbox 360

You can find the surprising answer on Google's Zeitgeist, the site, which author John Battelle says of in his new book:

…Google [has] more than its finger on the pulse of our culture, it [is] directly jacked into the culture's nervous system. (The Search, Page 2)

The trends Zeitgeist summarizes, while interesting, are only a tiny tip of a gargantuan ice-berg of data Google possesses. Every search you make, every click you take, Google's watching you. This is all at once thrilling for those of us interested in the social sciences and totally scary in a Big Brother way.

Again, Battelle:

…AOL, Google, MSN, Yahoo– hold a massive amount of this data. Taken together, this information represents a real time history of post-web culture– a massive clickstream database of desires, needs, wants, and preferences that all at once can be discovered, subpoenaed, archived, tracked, and exploited for all sorts of ends. (The Search, page 6)

In his book, Battelle dubs this the "Database of Intentions." He likens the hoards of data housed on Google's servers to be like a layer of dirt cradling artifacts. Maybe someday anthropologists will conduct digital digs to understand our culture post turn of the new-century.

Or maybe this digging has begun. Two examples deal with the Chinese and US governments. And Google's response to these issues are testing Google's ability to live up to its mantra, "Don't be Evil."

Issue 1: US Government demands search records to prove we need to pass the Child Pornography Act. Google resists. Is the company evil for not helping the government crack down on pedophiles? Or is it wise as compliance could lead to a slipery slope of more government demands for information?

Issue 2: Google agrees to Chinese demands that they censor searching. Are they creating a crack in the Chinese government's media control? Better to have a censored Internet than no Internet, right? Or is Google just seeing green in the face of the multi-billion dollar Chinese market? Forget about rights to information, China's a gargantuan cash cow.

Beyond privacy issues with the government, there are private sector quandaries. As technology develops and marketing becomes more personalized and targeted, will Google let me opt out of tailored advertising? Puh-leeeeaaaaaazeeee no more ads, no matter how much some clever algorithms think I want them.

Stay tuned, these questions won't go away anytime soon.

–Suz