Systems

The sound of words: Amazoogle and Googlezon

Lorcan 1 min read

Amazon, Google, eBay: massive computational and data platforms which exercise strong gravitational web attraction.
I coined the expression ‘Amazoogle‘ to have a handle to talk about this phenomenon in our space. It seems to me that Amazoogle has a slightly uplifting sense; it evokes a smile.
The Museum of Media History has produced a short video about Googlezon, a merged Amazon and Google. Googlezon sounds more sinister?
The video has been noted in a variety of places, and I had expected to see more discussion of it in our space. It provides a dystopian (for some?) vision of the future of media, seen from the perspective of 2014. “2004 will be remembered as the year that everything began.” Everybody is served by EPIC (Evolving Personalized Information Construct) which programmatically compiles person-specific views of the collaborative ‘mediascape’. The New York Times is a print-only newsletter for the elite and elderly.
Of course, 2004 is 20 years, and 2014 is 30 years, after 1984, a point underscored in the video as an ID card for Winston Smith is flashed up on the screen at one stage.

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