A review of The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick (and more and more and more and more and more and more and more). Data overload: Our culture’s reluctance to hit the delete button has economic costs — plus, all that data is hard to access. What do worldwide flu trends, wind power and robot car drivers have in common? The answer is Google Inc., which, in its quest to innovate, may be setting itself up for a fall. From Google's magazine Think Quarterly, the first issue is dedicated to data, including an interview with Hal Varian, Chief Economist at Google; an interview with data superstar Hans Rosling; Simon Rogers picks the 10 best places to see "sexy" data online; and from sticks to clouds, here is a visual history of data capture through the ages. An HTML for Numbers: Is Google's Public Data Explorer the first step toward a universal data format? David Carr on how Google is evolving into a media company. Can he topple Google? Stephen Wolfram had a dream — to invent a search engine that could work stuff out for us. If the Internet disappeared: Finding answers without Google. n+1 editor Charles Petersen reviews The Googlization of Everything (And Why We Should Worry) by Siva Vaidhyanathan (and more and more and more and more and more and more). Now that a judge has curtailed Google’s ambitions to create a giant digital bookstore and library, the company is left with few appealing options — and it should teach the company humility, but it won't. A digital library better than Google’s: Don’t let a for-profit company monopolize knowledge; create a public — and free — online collection of our books (and an interview with Robert Darnton). Books Without Borders: Dominic Basulto on the Digital Infinite Library. The Internet is the world’s largest library, you asshole — have you been to a local library lately? A memory of webs past: The Web is a rollicking, revealing record of life in the 21st century — but preserving it for future historians is a monumental technical challenge. The open Internet is worth saving: Evgeny Morozov reviews Barbara van Schewick's Internet Architecture and Innovation and Tim Wu's The Master Switch (and more and more). Can Tim Wu save the Internet? He fears a corporate takeover of the Web — now, as a senior adviser at the Federal Trade Commission, he's in a position to fight that.
