On the subject of Google’s reprisal against CNet for publishing information found via Google about CEO Eric Schmidt in a news article, Jason Shellen says there’s a difference between public data and publicizing data, which I agree with. The point he seems to be missing is that search engines like Google exist to shorten the distance between information that’s public and information that’s publicized. The implications of the changes that search engines (and other searchable databases) are making to society are worth discussing, this spat between Cnet and Google aside.