I was in the Austin airport today and a clip on CNN caught my ear. It was a piece on the “secret Senator” who had held up a bill, otherwise supported by a majority, which would require the creation of a database of government spending, in particular contracts, loans, and the like. What stopped me in my tracks was the anchor’s use of the term “a Google-like search function” as the reason the bill was being held up. In other words, this bill was clearly threatening to bring transparency and ease of use to information about government spending, and someone was using the secret Senator, who turned out to be our pal Ted “Series of Tubes” Stevens, to try to kill the bill.
Bloggers, however, made a huge fuss, CNN and its ilk caught onto the story. But, well, will the bill pass or not?
My money is on not.
by google-like do they mean it will have cute logos on holidays and birthdays of famous nerds? or will it be a project that starts life as a search engine and then turns into a remorseless business model eating machine?
What stopped me in my tracks was the anchor’s use of the term “a Google-like search function” as the reason the bill was being held up.
Of course the Google-like nature of the system is the reason the bill was being-held up. Nobody wants this government database to be in Beta forever!
Hehehehe.
[While I am in a zinging mood..] Actually, maybe the government wouldn’t mind a “forever beta” on their spending database.. I mean, after all it is taking the Google approach on Iraq: Not going in with a long-term plan, but instead throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks.
War 2.0.
Hey-oh!
John, just finished reading your book, and I must say, you have really got me hooked and thinking on the possibilities of Search – I am also a big fan of Google Earth, and the opportunities it opens up with a marriage of these technologies, brought to the user as and when he wants it through mobile phones and PDAs are just limitless!