Organizing the world’s information

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Google has stated that their goal is to organize the world’s information. To a degree they already have. But I’m sure their vision is much grander than what they’ve already accomplished. Google plans on storing all data ever created by every body forever. And this is a goal that hasn’t been clearly defined by any other human organization that I’m aware of, other than the the Great Library of Alexandria which may have had the will, but lacked the technological know how.

Google has always had lofty goals, and as you can see:

Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.

It’s a concise statement, but has broad-ranging implications. The world’s information is not currently stored on Google. Only a small fraction of the world’s information is even digitized at the current time, although Google and others are working frantically on changing that. But the biggest obstacle that has to be cleared with this goal is changing fundamentally the way people think of intellectual property ownership. In particular, information that lasts longer than the patentable time period will end up in the public domain. Google being a corporation can easily outlive people long enough to see all information go into the public domain.

To me, this central tenet of Google’s philosophy is the only possible explanation for their continued high stock prices. Search engine algos come and go, and so do search companies, but a company that transforms how everyone uses information is truly one for the ages.

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