Free sci-fi story - What if Google was evil?

Sci-fi writer and chief BoingBoing-er Cory Doctorow has just released “Scroogled”–a free online short story that posits what could happen if Google suddenly decided to be (openly) evil. You may remember that we’ve posted some of Doctorow’s free fiction before, and that we’ve also theorized what an evil Google might look like, but seeing the two in concert is deliciously terrifying.

Bear in mind, Doctorow is a noted privacy advocate and copyfighter (which basically means he thinks business and government should know almost nothing about you, but that you should have access to every shred of data held by business or the government–and that almost no information should be proprietary). His political lens is rather specifically focused, and the story shows it, buts that in no way prevents “Scroogled” from spinning an entertaining yarn. Whatever your politics, it’s worth a read–especially at this price.

If the story really speaks to you, you might want to take a gander at GoogleWatch, a self-styled Google watchdog group that fears the power the world’s leading search engine already holds, and seeks to gain. It’s a little black-helicoptery, but that’s not to say they’re wrong.