Search & Destroy: Why You Can't Trust Google Inc. and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more



or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering
Sell Us Your Item
For a $1.64 Gift Card
Trade in
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Start reading Search & Destroy: Why You Can't Trust Google Inc. on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.
Sorry, this item is not available in
Image not available for
Color:
Image not available

To view this video download Flash Player

 

Search & Destroy: Why You Can't Trust Google Inc. [Hardcover]

Scott Cleland , Ira Brodsky
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)

List Price: $28.95
Price: $21.09 & FREE Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $7.86 (27%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Want it Friday, May 24? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition $9.99  
Hardcover $21.09  
Image
Save on Popular Books This Summer
Browse our Bookshelf Favorites store for big savings on popular fiction, nonfiction, children's books, and more.

Book Description

May 10, 2011
This is the other side of the Google story. In Search & Destroy, Google expert Scott Cleland, shows that the world's most powerful company is not who it pretends to be.

Google pretends to be a harmless lamb, but chose a full-size model of a Tyrannosaurus Rex as its mascot. Beware the T-Rex in sheep's clothing.

Google has acquired far more information, both public and private, and has invented more ways to use it, than anyone in history. Information is power, and in Google's case, it's the power to influence and control virtually everything the Internet touches. Google's power is largely unchecked, unaccountable and grossly underestimated. Google is the Internet's lone superpower, the new master of the digital information universe. And Google's power depends almost entirely on the blind trust it has gained through masterful duplicity. Google routinely says one thing and does another.

Cleland proves the world's #1 brand untrustworthy. He exposes the unethical company hiding behind a Don't Be Evil slogan. He uncovers Google's hidden political agenda. And he reveals how Google's famed mission to organize the world's information is destructive and wrong. Cleland is the first to critically examine where Google is leading us, explain why we don t want to go there, and propose straightforward solutions.

Google's unprecedented centralization of power over the world's information is corrupting both Google and the Internet, a natural result of unchecked power. Google is evolving from an information servant to master, from working for users, to making users work for the Internet behemoth.

Search & Destroy conclusively demonstrates that Google's goal is to change the world by influencing and controlling information access. Ultimately, Google's immense unchecked power is destructive precisely because Google is so shockingly-political, unethical and untrustworthy.


Frequently Bought Together

Search & Destroy: Why You Can't Trust Google Inc. + Full Black: A Thriller (Scot Harvath)
Price for both: $39.20

Buy the selected items together


Editorial Reviews

Review

"Scott Cleland's new book explains what getting 'Googled' really means having your private information exploited, your personal security compromised, your market choices eliminated, and your naive trust in the company's public pronouncements betrayed. Cleland's perspective will resonate most with conservatives and libertarians, but, in truth, every computer user needs to read this book before clicking on the Google site again." - Gary Reback, author of Free The Market! and the antitrust lawyer who spearheaded the Federal Government's case against Microsoft in the 1990s

A courageous and important book -- persuasively argued and well defended. - Ben Edelman, Assistant Professor, Harvard Business School

There is no one that writes more incisively about Google than Scott Cleland. - Randolph May, President, Free State Foundation

--Expert testimonials

" Search & Destroy provides an eye-opening assessment of Google's 'free services' that will lead many to question their online choices." --- Roger Entner, Analyst & Founder, Recon Analytics

"Search and Destroy is an important book - for the first time it puts a spotlight on all the issues arising from Google's advertising and search dominance." --- Simon Buckingham, Founder of Appitalism

From the Author

TBD
--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 329 pages
  • Publisher: Telescope Books; 1 edition (May 10, 2011)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0980038324
  • ISBN-13: 978-0980038323
  • Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #382,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Authors

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
21 of 23 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars Some good points, but overall tedious and repetitive October 22, 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I really enjoy reading books about internet companies, especially how they started, became successful etc. I am interested because I myself run a website that I hope to grow into something big some day. That said, I have been aware of some of the rumblings about problems with Google's influence as it turns from spunky startup into arrogant behemoth - the Microsoft of the 2000's, by some accounts. So I was interested to read this book, which purports to dig into the dark side of Google in some depth. And, to be fair, it does do that! However, I couldn't finish the book. Here's why: It's tedious and repetitive, like one huge single-note rant. In the eyes of this author, Google is completely and totally bad. Every single thing that Google does has a nefarious motive, to steal our privacy or dominate the world or squash competition. Now the really sad thing is that he does make some good points - Google does seem to be doing some of these things, either intentionally or not. But Scott Cleland really shoots himself in the foot by making it all just a bit too much like one of those homeless guys who stands on a street corner wearing a tinfoil hat, with the incredibly detailed sign telling us all about how the Bilderberg group is controlling our lives. When every single page, every single paragraph either starts or ends with yet another version of the statement "Google cannot be trusted", it just gets really old very quickly.

This single-minded rant goes off the rails on numerous occasions. For example, he talks about how Google runs its servers using Open Source software, and actually tries to portray this as being fundamentally insecure. Well, this is something I actually know a fair bit about (I'm a software developer and I use Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl etc for my own website), and it's just laughable to try to say that a system is insecure simply because it uses Open Source. That's the sort of smoke and mirrors I would have expected out of Microsoft... back in the 1990's. But most people who know what they are talking about recognize that Open Source systems like Linux are, if anything, more secure than their closed source equivalents, since the code is open and anybody can inspect it (and fix it). With many eyes, all bugs become shallow - and there are a *lot* of people working to make tools like Linux better and more secure. With a closed source system, you don't know what sorts of security vulnerabilities or backdoors there might be under the covers. It's true that any system can be insecure if it's not configured properly, but to try to pretend that it might be insecure simply because it's Open Source is just wrong - and it tends to discredit whatever other points the author is trying to make. If he's saying this about something that I actually know a fair bit about, then what will I be missing when he talks about other stuff that I'm not so familiar with (e.g. book publishing)?

One of the biggest problems with the book is that the author seems to simply refuse to believe that anybody at Google is doing what they do for any reason other than to dominate the world and steal your personal information so they can sell more ads to advertisers. The sad thing is that yes, there is a component of this that we do need to watch and be wary of. But the real truth of the matter is that Google is run by a bunch of geeks, many of whom simply love building things. The fact that they have found a way to integrate this with a money making machine (the ads system) doesn't negate the fact that they are geeks who love making cool stuff. I do think that there is probably a fair amount of self delusion going on at Google - they do tend to take the rug out from other small startups who might have a cool idea for a website by simply providing their own version for free, much in the same way that Microsoft did it back in the last century. Is this ok? Is it monopolistic? It's a good question, which deserves a good, even handed, clear headed look at all sides of the situation. This book isn't that discussion, it's just a one-sided rant that focuses on one concept ("Google is not to be trusted") and then latches onto it like a pitbull and doesn't let go. Like I said, this gets really tiresome after a while, and it is made even more frustrating by the fact that as you wade through the book, you will actually come across some good points every now and then. After a while, though, I just couldn't bring myself to pick up the book again, because it is just such a downer. Imagine a very intense, single minded person ranting at you in monotone for hours - that is what this book is like. I can anticipate with sure accuracy what the next page will contain, and it ain't anything good or positive, that's for sure.

Another criticism of Google that rang somewhat hollow was that they are "radical" - the author uses this word several times, and I think he means it to be perjorative, which implies to me a rather conservative mindset. So Google is to be denigrated for trying to do something different, and better? WTF? Innovation and doing things differently is how silicon valley works. The geeks love being creative and coming up with new stuff, is that so bad? Sure, criticise Google's increasing arrogance (the bits about the way Google bulldozed its way into copying books without the publishers' or authors' consent was quite interesting, for example), but don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Have some balance, just because a company does some dickish things it doesn't mean that every single thing the company does is evil. It's usually a bit more complex than that. In my opinion, the problem at Google is not so much that it has some kind of nefarious masterplan to take over the world and make us all slaves, but rather that the people who work there tend to be very smart, rather arrogant, perhaps a little clueless at times with respect to social interactions (e.g. when they made everybody's gmail contact list public by default) - i.e. classic geeks. Another problem seems to be that the people who work there only tend to hire other people who think in exactly the same way. This might seem like a good idea on the surface (after all, who wouldn't want to hire only smart people), but in reality I think it has produced a bit of a monoculture which isn't all that healthy. The downside of extreme, diamond edged intelligence might be that such people can tend to be more than a little bit oblivious to the softer, more fuzzy areas of life - e.g. social relationships, how people outside the Google bubble think, live and interact with each other, how the world sees the increasing dominance of Google, how it's maybe not so cute any more when you implement some little idea at a huge company like Google, when making that little idea freely available might squash a number of little companies that were trying to make a living based on that concept.

Yes, Google needs to be watched. Yes, Google is doing some very iffy things, but this book tries to portray the company as being just monotone evil. The truth is, I think, a bit more complex than that.

I am currently reading "The Googlization of Everything" by Siva Vaidhyanathan, which looks to be a more level headed critical look at Google and its effects on our society.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
21 of 25 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Google's Corporate Ethics Challenged in New Book June 14, 2011
Format:Hardcover
Review of Search & Destroy: Why You Can't Trust Google, Inc., by Scott Cleland with Ira Brodsky, Telescope Books, St. Louis, Missouri, 2011, ISBN-10: 0980038324, $28.95, 329 pages.

Even paranoiacs have real enemies, goes the adage. I'm inclined to agree, especially after reading Search & Destroy: Why You Can't Trust Google, Inc., by Scott Cleland with Ira Brodsky.

The book adds heft to a shelf increasingly freighted with cautionary volumes about the perils the Internet poses to individual privacy, among other concerns. The book, while at times heavy-handed, details the authors' views that Google tramples individual privacy, violates intellectual property rights, and asserts undoe if not illegal influence on both political and economic processes.

Internet privacy has become a hot-button issue in Washington, and featured as the issue du jour of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law when Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) conducted its May 10 inaugural hearing, titled "Protecting Mobile Privacy: Your Smartphones, Tablets, Cell Phones and Your Privacy."

Additionally, legislators are scrambling to introduce Internet privacy laws, including the "Do Not Track Online Act of 2011," by Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) and the "Data Accountability and Trust Act" (HR 1707), by Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL).

Multiple Threats to Privacy
Security violations affecting personal information are plentiful, including Apple's iOS4 operating system collecting and storing users' location information even when they tried to turn off location services, the Google Buzz social networking site sharing supposedly secure information upon its launch in 2010, and the hacking of 70 million Sony Playstation users' credit-card information in April.

In Search & Destroy, however, Cleland and Brodsky focus on Google as the biggest threat to privacy. The two writers possess a treasure trove of evidence amassed by Cleland's extensive research into the information technology monolith for the two Web sites he publishes: GoogleMonitor.com and Googleopoly.net, plus his former stint as U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Information and Communication Policy, where he thrice testified before Congress regarding Google.

Cleland is joined in his jihad against Google by Brodsky, a researcher, author, and publisher of dozens of reports on new technologies and markets.

`Don't Be Evil'
Cleland and Brodsky's book (excerpted on page 16 of this issue of Infotech & Telecom News) is essentially a fever dream in which Google's squishy motto, "Don't Be Evil," metamorphosizes, Kafkaesque, into a cockroach scuttling through the nooks and crannies of every aspect of contemporary society with the express goals of worldwide domination and even mind control to the extent it can impact economic markets and political elections.

I find some of Cleland and Brodsky's cavils a bit farfetched. Market dominance, if predicated simply on providing consumers services and devices they desire more than competitors' products, isn't necessarily monopolistic, lacking in Judeo-Christian values, or "evil."

That's the logical fallacy most prevalent in Search & Destroy: the authors find so much distasteful about Google's ubiquity online and elsewhere, they resort to castigating everything about the company regardless of whether available evidence supports it.

One avenue they don't explore, for example, is how best to reconcile responsible data mining for targeted advertising; instead they concentrate on how to prevent Google from doing it altogether. Left unmentioned is the tremendous benefits of tracking information, including saving time for customers seeking specific information based on their individual preferences and purchase histories, the billions of dollars thereby generated for companies employing such information, and how resulting advertising revenues keep Internet use affordable.

Privacy and Search Rankings
It is when Cleland and Brodsky address privacy issues and search engine rankings that they make their most compelling arguments.

As noted above, Google possesses a nearly infinite ability to collect information from users of its email, search engine, and social networking utilities. An extremely detailed profile of any user could be compiled easily. One doesn't have to be a staunch privacy advocate to find this ability kind of creepy. Nor does one need to be a criminal to see the potential negative repercussions of all this information if law-enforcement agencies subpoena those nasty emails you wrote but didn't send to your former girlfriend 10 or 15 years ago.

Likewise, the authors correctly call into question the "objective" algorithms governing Google's search engine rankings. Google "Santorum," for example, and you'll find the top two entries are for a sexual neologism rather than a prominent Pennsylvania Republican politician. Imagine the possibilities--and the justified uproar--if the system were similarly gamed such that every Google search for "Obama" immediately highlighted something perceived as crude and offensive.

That's small potatoes compared to what could result from manipulating online searches during a hotly contested election year, especially when Google CEO Eric Schmidt has boasted publicly of his company's ability to impact the public square: "We're at a point now in technology where we really can change the entire political discourse if we want to."

While hardly definitive--much of what is explored between its covers remains speculative in 2011--Search & Destroy may serve yet as one of the first and most prescient salvos against what seems likely to be the world's biggest information enterprise for the foreseeable future.

Bruce Edward Walker (bwalker@heartland.org) is managing editor of Infotech & Telecom News.
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars Almighty Googolosaurus Rex May 28, 2011
By FNell
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This work contains an important message that all should hear/read, but I found some of the content to be too repetitive. The author made his case on a particular topic/issue in one chapter, but does so again on the same topic/issue in subsequent chapters, with a little bit of extra information added. The book therefore contains less revelations than the length would suggest. Just when the book started to engage me at about 60% (on the Kindle) it ended. It was a bit of a frustrating read, but this does not mean the book should not be read. I strongly recommend it. I support the author's views on Google = "G-d" (omni-), and found the parallels with communism revealing. Google may be your friend today, but whoever controls it tomorrow may not be ...
Comment | 
Was this review helpful to you?
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars This is a very important read.
Pros:

Very, very important subject. You need to know more about Google since they are everywhere now. Very insightful about the advertising. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Leo
2.0 out of 5 stars It should have been an article.
The topic is very important but the author repeats itself along the book in a very annoying way. If he had written an article, pouring the same ideas in a more concise way, it... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Pedro Dullius
5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Read!
I know 2 people I went to college with who now work at Google and the statements made in this book ARE TRUE!
You must read it (and quit using all Google products). Read more
Published 10 months ago by Gregory J. Brazina
2.0 out of 5 stars Oh my G--.!! This book is boring.
This book is very informative and probably accurate, but it was so long and boring after slogging thru about 80% of it, I stopped reading it. Read more
Published 11 months ago by AW
5.0 out of 5 stars Eye opening revelation about Google
This is a great read and should be a must read for all. With the technological world expanding so quickly, we don't seem to be aware of the capabilities of companies like Google. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Laurie
4.0 out of 5 stars Search & Destroy - Scott Cleland (Telescope Books)
There have been many books about the internet behemoth that is Google, but none that so explicitly expose the actual and potential dangers of a single company being the world's... Read more
Published 22 months ago by BlogOnBooks
5.0 out of 5 stars Google Is Evil
Google says "Don't be Evil". They should take their own advice. Big brother is Google.

Google's mascot should not be a Tyrannosaurus but a termite, fly or flea because... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Woodlandtrails
5.0 out of 5 stars Eye opening!
I have had my doubts about Google's motives for years, but it is so easy to be swayed by their array of products and services. Read more
Published on May 11, 2011 by VoraciousReader
Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews


Forums

Topic From this Discussion
Use this instead
I have refused to use Google for any reason, except on a VERY rare occassion to look at maps. I no longer use their mapping feature, since I have a portable GPS (Garmin Nuvi) in my car. Unlike the GPS feature that appears in EVERY CELLPHONE that can track and record your movements!! NO ONE has... Read more
May 18, 2011 by Joseph A. Nowak |  See all 2 posts
Have something you'd like to share about this product?
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions


So You'd Like to...


Create a guide


Look for Similar Items by Category