It’s right there in the title “This Week in Google”
If it’s something you can find in Google, then it can be a topic for the show.
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Them be fightin’ words!
This was the week that caused me to unsubscribe from TWiG. I get that Mr Jarvis is very liberal in his views but there is never any critique of media that leans left. Especially the obituary by Washington Post comparing the terrorist to a scholar? Come on
The statements around equating people who follow conservative media other than Wall Street Journal is a white nationalist was over the top.
If we can get back to Google stuff than I will listen, but the never ending politics has me moving on.
The show opened if I remember by ripping on the President for putting candy on someone’s head and having a joke about it, sets the tone of the hosts on this show
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Jarvis used to trash the Guardian (and its readers) on nearly every TWiG episode, so not sure he’s uncritical of left leaning media. I’m not even sure how liberal he is (other than supporting Democratic candidates for office), as he can’t seem to tolerate even the suggestion of regulation where big tech is concerned. I guess he’s a complicated guy…I can’t be bothered to figure him out.
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Sounds to me like most of the critics in this thread just don’t like the show. And that’s okay! AAA does a good job of covering a lot of Google news.
I think a lot of the suggestions of “the show should change entirely” aren’t really helpful. Maybe just finding a different source for Google news might be a better avenue.
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Yup, completely agree with this. More Google please! Maybe make it TWiA (Alphabet) to broaden it up more? But ya, I like it so much because I do feel it seems like TWiT #2 for the week. And ya, I would love to hear more from Kevin Tofel!
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That makes sense, because TWiG is not about Google in the main
Amen to that - it does tend to devolve into this week in left wing politics
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I like the political conversations. I tend to talk to the radio during TWiG.
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I think the big ideas are interesting but ocasionally it does go too heavy on those and too light on Google news that gets jammed into the change log and not fleshed out. The show is at its best when it balances the nerdy tech details with the big picture “what does this mean” angles - both from a political/philosophical and a business trend standpoint. Having Kevin Toefl on more would help with the Chromebook/G-Suite stuff but I doubt there would be enough demand to support going deep into Google Cloud. That said - a This Week In Cloud that talked in detail about Azure, AWS and GC would be interesting - perhaps that’s what TWIET focuses on.
My biggest problem is with Jeff. I like him, but he cuts other people off and even when he is wrong (privacy in Europe, his “techno panic”, right to be forgotten and Leistungsschutzrecht), he won’t listen when people correct him. He has listened to the FUD from Google, for example, and thinks this is accurate, whereas actually reading the laws and directives in question would show him that he is wrong.
As a Brit (and naturalised German citizen) living in Germany since the turn of the Century, I find it especially insulting that he, as an American that is in Germany for a couple of days a year, thinks he knows more about what Germans think than the Germans themselves. He seems to skip over the whole national socialism and the Stattssicherheit (Stasi, secret police) that has coloured the German collective feeling on freedom and privacy for the last century. That a big American corporation is abusing people doesn’t make it better than a government doing it.
Leistungsschutzrecht: Has been declared illegal (the EU has told Germany to repeal the law, as it doesn’t conform to EU rights) and was never blanket supported by the old-press - in fact much of the tech press in Germany lambasted and lampooned Axel Springe AG.
Right to be forgotten: There are very legitimate reasons for it and, unlike Jeff’s insistence, it doesn’t mean the de-listing of articles on search engines (and it doesn’t just affect Google, it affects all search engines, but Google has the lion’s share of the search market with well over 90%, so it is always the “default” in the argument), it means that the articles can’t be returned when specific keywords are entered.
If we take the example “Jeff Jarvis killed JFK”, there are stories about his arrest, arraignment, which all make the front page of Google. All his journalistic results turn up on page 3 or later. It is proven to be fake news and he is released and this is minor news, because it isn’t glamorous. 5 years later, when you search for Jeff, all you get is 3 pages of Jeff killed JFK, before any of his current stories turn up. Under the right to be forgotten, he could get the results to the JFK killing removed, when searching for Jeff Jarvis. If you search for “JFK”, “assassination”, “conspiracy JFK” etc. you still get the articles coming up. Somebody looking for Jeff’s work and whether to employ him doesn’t get the misinformation about the JFK killing fake news, just “real news”; somebody researching the JFK shooting and the conspiracies surrounding it will still get the articles on Jeff’s arrest.
GDPR: Likewise, as a European, I find GDPR to be a move in the right direction. Companies shouldn’t be tracking me across the web and selling my information. That is my information! Advertising should target the sites, not the visitors, for example. And keeping the collection and use of information to an absolute minimum, deleting it after it is no longer relevant and the collection to always be opt-in are the right thing to do.
On other subjects, he can be very rational and informative, but as soon as big tech is criticised, he gets his knickers in a twist, which is a big shame.
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This 100 times this.
I feel like he cuts Ms. Stacey off a lot. Just waiting for him to say “Actually” in the way that meme does it.
But I’ve unsubscribed. Maybe I’ll come back later based on what I read here
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Your entire post X 1,000. You just nailed everything.
I think the reason Jeff gets under my skin so much (and obviously some others’ as well) is his steadfast refusal to consider criticism of big tech as anything but hysteria combined with his US-centric view that other countries shouldn’t be able put any constraints on big tech by passing legislation in the best interest of their own citizens, which is absolute arrogance. I’m sorry/not sorry to say this — and I do so as a dual US/Canada citizen who spent 39 years in the States — but the US/Silicon Valley does NOT get to write the rules for the rest of the planet.
PS — To be fair, it should be said that Jeff is hardly the only one guilty of this kind of thinking. Many other guests/hosts have expressed opinions that reveal a lack of consideration or understanding of the rights of those outside the US to make their own decisions. He just has a platform to do it every week, and his stridency draws attention to it.
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Realize that “This Week In Google” is more of broader title. It was never intended to be just about Google. it is a show of the connections of goings on the internet not just Google, this was the intent of the show from its launch. If you notice that when Leo or the host introduces the show at the beginning its never said “a show all about Google” like the other Windows, Apple, iOS specific shows are introduced.
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I just wanted to jump in and say I think @JeffJarvis is awesome! 
Love his contributions to TWIG, and his insight.
I think adding more Google content such as G Suite change-logs can be interesting to those of us that are G Suite admins, but to the general public it could be a turn-off.
But to the point of a lot of people in this thread, the audience of the show is international, so maybe sometimes the host can move the conversation along when it gets stuck on US-centric or political topics, sure.
Keep up the good work TWIT!
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I do admire your frequent attempts to move the discussion to Google stuff 
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Would love to see more Kevin Tofel on TWiG
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Maybe I’m the odd one… But I LOVE TWiG exactly the way it is! Yeah, some more Google would be good, but I don’t want anything else to change. I love the deep thoughts and perspectives of @JeffJarvis, @gigastacey, and @Leo. To me, that’s what makes TWiG so special.
EDIT: Ohh… And you can NEVER go wrong with adding more Kevin Tofel in there as well.
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Agree with many of the comments. I’d like to see more Google-centric discussions and perhaps move the other topics to a new show about Tech in Politics and Government.
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Completely agree. Stopped listening to TWiG some time ago because of the politics as I listen for the tech news on Google and related, not political views. Gave this week a listen and it seems it is still all politics with a little Google sprinkled in. Let me know when you get back to the subject.
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