Google is the new Microsoft

Maybe not that new, actually, but I've been out of it. My recent absence attests to that. But the Google backlash has maybe begun? This week, the lamely titled "Current" section of the LA Times takes on the latest class action suit against Google... by a group of authors no less.

Xeni Jardin, BoingBoing editor and apparent gadfly is "Current's" blog correspondent, reporting in about online trends for the sad folks still reading the dead medium of newsprint. So clearly, you'd expect her to have a technophilic perspective. And she does skewer the Authors Guild and other writers for claiming that Google's attempt to create"the world's most ginormous digital card catalog" will irrevocably damage the meaning of the copyright. Google is copying with commercial intent (as it will sell ads on its search pages) and authors who do not want to be included have the burden of opting out.

But as Jardin notes, Google makes things (websites, and eventually books) easier to find, and "any product that is more easily found online can be more easily sold." Another great quote, from an anonymous author who spoke to Jardin, "fear of obscurity, not digital indexing, is what keeps most authors awake at night."

I for one think it's awesome that Google is compiling this amazing source of knowledge. It's like the Alexandria library or something. And I admit to a little bit of school pride in knowing my alma mater is among the chosen sites (of course, it's also the alma mater of the Google founders too, so not that surprising). I have benefitted from the openness of libraries - both the LA Public Library's exchange program that sends the equivalent of a branch library through its system every day, matching book with reader across the city; and from the DC college consortium, which allowed me to check out books not available at Georgetown, but in plentiful supply at Catholic University or George Mason. Continuing the trend of making books more accessible to readers should be every author's goal.