Search And Destroy
Vaidhyanathan instead focuses on the lack of regulation of search engines. Courts in the United States, for instance, have held that Google may rank sites according to whatever criteria it likes—however capricious or misleading that may be—even though a sudden change in rankings can effectively destroy sites that rely on search traffic for business. But if a monopoly of search is almost inevitable, as Vaidhyanathan argues, and search in particular represents an important public good, the question becomes not just whether search engines should be regulated but whether part of the industry should “go public” in a sense largely unknown to Silicon Valley—that is, become socialized.”
