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Digital Culture

Google University

Google launched a new “platform” page today, with Google University. Some of the interesting things about it: this is the first time that I’ve seen Google launch a page that simply collects their services for a certain demographic without adding any new services and this is the first time that someone can simply sign up for a Gmail account without and invite or a cell phone (although it does appear that the secondary account has to be from a .edu). Even more interesting to me is the order in which they’ve decided to present their services: all of the communication services (Gmail and Google Talk) first, mobile search (Google SMS, which rocks my face off), maps, and only then do we get down to Google Scholar, the only real search system of the bunch.

It says a lot about Google’s growth that they present a search engine 5th.

By griffey

Jason Griffey was most recently the Director of Strategic Initiatives at NISO, where he worked to identify new areas of the information ecosystem where standards expertise was useful and needed. Prior to joining NISO in 2019, Jason ran his own technology consulting company for libraries, has been both an Affiliate at metaLAB and a Fellow and Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and was an academic librarian in roles ranging from reference and instruction to Head of Library IT and a tenured professor at the University of TN at Chattanooga.

Jason has written extensively on technology and libraries, including multiple books and a series of full-periodical issues on technology topics, most recently a chapter in Library 2035 - Imagining the Next Generation of Libraries by Rowman & Littlefield. His latest full-length work Standards - Essential Knowledge, co-authored with Jeffery Pomerantz, was published by MIT Press in March 2025.

He has spoken internationally on topics such as artificial intelligence & machine learning, the future of technology and libraries, decentralization and the Blockchain, privacy, copyright, and intellectual property. A full list of his publications and presentations can be found on his CV.
He is one of eight winners of the Knight Foundation News Challenge for Libraries for the Measure the Future project (http://measurethefuture.net), an open hardware project designed to provide actionable use metrics for library spaces. He is also the creator and director of The LibraryBox Project (http://librarybox.us), an open source portable digital file distribution system.

One reply on “Google University”

4INFO (shortcode 44636) has a similar text message offering, but provides a few services that Google does not: sports scores (“packers” “nfl”), fantasy stats (“joe crede” “priest holmes”), flight times (“swa san jose san diego”) and a beta version of mobile download search. All these services can be accessed via sms (44636), wap (http://wap.4INFO.net ), or email to search@4INFO.net.

Why 4INFO instead of Google?
“When asked recently for the address of a trendy downtown Manhattan club called Butter, both 4Info and Yahoo! located it on the first try. But Google sent back results better suited to baking.”
– Wendy Widman, Forbes.com. 8/3/2005

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