"The Global Id" is a nice, smart piece of writing, and a good example of the uncanny internet meme. While discussing the rise of Google through AdWords, John Lanchester connects that to a somewhat dark sense of browsing and desire:
An ad in any normal medium is, to one degree or another, a form of broadcasting: it will appear in front of many people who have no interest in it, en route to finding the minority on whom it will exert some grip. Google’s ads appear only in front of people who are already looking for the thing they are advertising; they are as narrowcast as advertising can possibly be. The general realisation of this was accompanied by the dawning knowledge that Google in effect has a direct line, if not quite to the unconscious dreaming mind of the world, at least to the part of it which voices its wishes... Google showed that it was wired straight into the global id.
(emphasis added)
(thanks, eagle-eyed writing Janice!)
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