How Is Google Changing Our Lives?
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Backed by 25 lobbying and public relations firms yesterday, Google's Chairman Eric Schmidt faced a Senate committee, determined not to avoid the mistakes Bill Gates made 13 years ago. How dominant is Google? Can users completely trust it? We hear about the good and the bad. Also, stocks fall on news that the global economy is in the danger zone, and pieces of a retired American satellite are about to strike Earth, but nobody knows just where.
Banner image: Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee's Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights Subcommittee on Capitol Hill September 21, 2011 in Washington, DC. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Making News
Stocks Fall on News that Global Economy Is in Danger Zone ()
Stocks fell today in Asia, Europe and on Wall Street after more warnings that the global economies are in big trouble. Daniel Gross is a columnist and economics editor at Yahoo! Finance.
Guests:
- Daniel Gross: Yahoo Finance, @grossdm
Main Topic
How Is Google Changing Our Lives? ()
Even critics say Google makes the Internet usable. One clean and useful search tool has replaced that series of links that might or might not be productive. But it now handles two-thirds of all web searches in the US and gets three-fourths of the revenue. Is it using its dominance to lead searchers to its own products? What else does Google do that users don't know about? Thirteen years ago, before Google was ever invented, Bill Gates of Microsoft faced anti-trust charges before a Senate Committee. Yesterday, Eric Schmidt, the Chairman of Google, faced the same committee, determined not to repeat Gates' mistakes. Why did Schmidt say he wants to "get right up to the creepy line and not cross it?" We hear about yesterday's Senate Anti-Trust Committee hearing and a lot more about Google's dominance on business and its impact on users.
Guests:
- Amir Efrati: Wall Street Journal
- Danny Sullivan: Search Engine Land
- Siva Vaidhyanathan: University of Virginia
- Nicholas Carr: author and journalist
Links:
- Stanford University study on the price of multi-tasking
- FTC's proposed settlement with Google over privacy issues, consumer data
- Efrati on Google rivals readying their anti-trust assault
- Search Engine Land on yesterday's Senate hearings
- Vaidhyanathan's 'The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry)'
- Carr's 'The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains'
- Carr's (Atlantic) article, 'Is Google Making Us Stupid?'
Reporter's Notebook
Falling NASA Satellite Will Not Crash in North America ()
NASA's Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite is heading into the lower atmosphere, where most is expected to burn up on re-entry. But some 300-pound pieces satellite are expected to rain down tomorrow someplace on Earth. NASA says it won't know exactly where until about two hours before they land. Donald Kessler, retired as NASA's senior scientist for orbital research, led a report on space debris for the National Research Council earlier this year.
Guests:
- Donald Kessler: NASA scientist (retired)
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