And tomorrow?

For Alain Strowel ‘the aim of the legal proceedings initiated against Google shouldn’t be the blocking at all costs of the projects launched by the American company – whose end goals and outcomes are often positive – but indeed a balance between the interests of each party concerned.’ The intellectual rights specialist also insists on the fact that today institutions still remain to be invented – if not on an international level then at least on a European scale – capable of regulating the internet, a space without frontiers. The legal convulsions involving Google are in effect far from over, even if with its new CEO (3) the American company should prove more prudent.

In terms of innovation the general search engine should not in the future be based on requests encouraged by internet users. Google will spontaneously offer suggestions according to user behaviour and geographical position. Without hiding a certain anxiety, Alain Strowel makes the point that ‘if Google manages to discover if a certain individual hasn’t bought any milk for a certain time, we can imagine that in passing a grocery store for example, the individual in question will receive a reminder in the form of a purchase suggestion. The next step is perhaps that. Google is in any case moving in the direction of intensifying targeted advertising thanks to the increase of personal data and global positioning. That could in the end affect the way society behaves and even the way we relate with others.’ And, to go back to the projects concerning books, Alain Strowel adds by way of conclusion: ‘we can also imagine that advertising will invade the margins and even the body of the text of online books. And there it is our relationship with knowledge which will be changed.’ Google is testing the law and is drawing up the outlines of the future of the Internet. As it changes over the course of time it is highly probable that the rest of the online world will follow it.

(3) Larry Page succeeded Eric Schmidt to the post of CEO in April 2011.