Google and Theory of Mind

Anil Dash wrote a great piece on the problems Google faces. He has articulated many of the ideas I've been trying to express, explaining the potential issues as an issue with Google's lack of understanding of how other's view it (which he expresses through theory of mind, which happens to be one of my favorite psychological theories). In one example, Anil explains that "Connecting PageRank to economic systems such as AdWords and AdSense corrupted the meaning and value of links by turning them into an economic exchange." As Clay pointed out in the comments a few days ago, Google also realized this problem when they were doing their thesis, noting, "advertising income often provides an incentive to provide poor quality search results." Anyway, go read Anil's whole piece, it's quite good.