Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge

Jean-Noel Jeanneney. Google and the Myth of Universal Knowledge: a View from Europe.

Description

"Jeanneney argues that Google’s unsystematic digitization of books from a few partner libraries and its reliance on works written mostly in English constitute acts of selection that can only extend the dominance of American culture abroad. This danger is made evident by a Google book search the author discusses here—one run on Hugo, Cervantes, Dante, and Goethe that resulted in just one non-English edition, and a German translation of Hugo at that. An archive that can so easily slight the masters of European literature—and whose development is driven by commercial interests—cannot provide the foundation for a universal library." (http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2006/06/google_and_the_myth_of_univers.html)

Review

Critical commentary at http://www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/2006/06/google_and_the_myth_of_univers.html