Investment crisis at Google justified abandoning the user-service reciprocal relationship

Evidence

The declaration of a state of exception functions in politics as cover for the suspension of the rule of law and the introduction of new executive powers justified by crisis. At Google in late 2000, it became a rationale for annulling the reciprocal relationship that existed between Google and its users, steeling the founders to abandon their passionate and public opposition to advertising. As a specific response to investors’ anxiety, the founders tasked the tiny AdWords team with the objective of looking for ways to make more money. Page demanded that the whole process be simplified for advertisers. In this new approach, he insisted that advertisers “shouldn’t even get involved with choosing keywords—Google would choose them.” — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 230

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘state of exception’ framing connects to the reader’s interest in prediction markets and surveillance capitalism as extracted informational power — the crisis-and-emergency exemption recurs. — connects to: Fear of financial obscurity drove Google founders to abandon founding principles — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 264; Google’s advantage cycle lacked a market transaction to anchor reciprocity — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 215; Early Google ran a self-contained behavioral value reinvestment cycle treating users as ends — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 217 (+2 more)
• DEFINE: Borrows Schmitt’s ‘state of exception’ concept to explain how investor pressure legitimated breaking the Google-user social contract.