After making a stink about search neutrality proposals over on Computerworld I was contacted by Eric Joyce MP to present a counter-opinion; apparently the way the Commons works is that if you care enough to voice an opinion about something then there’s a risk you’ll be tapped to do the work. Since Google apparently declined to participate, that leaves me involved “for having made it public”.
Hmm.
Today, search engines like Google and Bing play a crucial role in steering traffic and revenues through the Global digital economy: they are an essential component of the Internet’s infrastructure. With that in mind should we be looking beyond the well-known arguments about network neutrality and considering the idea of “search neutrality” ? For example, what external standards, if any, and what editorial policies should be applied to searches and how comprehensive, impartial and ‘relevant’ do those searches need to be to meet our needs? The need for a discussion about search neutrality is seen as pressing by UK Search companies like Foundem, presently involved in an anti-trust case against Google, and their position can be seen here. Others, however feel different. We’ll hear and discuss both sides of the argument at this event.
In some ways I wish this wasn’t going ahead because I feel the proposals are bonkers enough without the oxygen of publicity, but in truth that is just wishful thinking – suffocation would not make the proposal go away on its own, so comprehensively opposed it must be.
I’d like to thank my colleagues in the OpenRightsGroup for bouncing ideas around and fomenting practice debate; I’ll have grown an extra pair of arms by then…
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