Googlewash or Agenda Setting?

Googlewash. Andrew Orlowski: Anti-war slogan coined, repurposed and Googlewashed… in 42 days. Orlowski discusses how a small group of A-list bloggers can quickly redefine terms in the eyes of Google…. [Google Weblog]

Very thought provoking commentary on the interaction between A-list bloggers and Google around the phrase “the second superpower” which Jim Moore introduced in his new blog and which lines up with some of Joi Ito’s recent thinking about emergent democracy.

Granted that technologists have a predisposition for liking rational utopian forecasts, it’s still interesting to see how these early adopters can have a disproportionate impact by leveraging these new tools. “Googlewash” is a clever term but I find it too pejorative. We are in an economy of ideas after all. Figuring out how to take advantage of this new environment to devleop and spread those ideas is a good thing. I do worry a bit about connecting this new found power to more traditional forms of influencing and shaping agendas. I hope, and suspect, that that is part of Dave Winer’s agenda in his new role at Harvard.