Google is working with US intelligence agencies in a bid to connect the dots.
Many of the contracts are for search appliances – servers for storing and searching internal documents. Agencies can use the devices to create their own mini-Googles on intranets made up entirely of government data. Additionally, Google has had success licensing a souped-up version of its aerial mapping service, Google Earth. Agencies can use it to plot scientific data and chart the U.S. coastline, for example, giving ships another tool to navigate safely.
Spy agencies are using Google equipment as the backbone of Intellipedia, a network aimed at helping agents share intelligence. Rather than hoarding information, spies and analysts are being encouraged to post what they learn on a secure online forum where colleagues can read it and add comments.
According to Sean Dennehy, chief of Intellipedia development for the CIA Each analyst, for lack of a better term, has a shoe box with their knowledge, they maintained it in a shared drive or a Word document, but we’re encouraging them to move those platforms so that everyone can benefit.”
So far, 37,000 users have established accounts on the network, which contain 35,000 articles encompassing 200,000 pages. Google supplies the computer servers that support the network, as well as the search software that allows users to sift through messages and data. Whether the network actually leads to better intelligence will largely depend on agents sharing some of their most important files and then their colleagues chiming in with incisive commentary – issues that are out of Google’s hands.
Normally, Google ranks results on its consumer site by using the number of links to a Web page as a barometer of its importance. Doing so on Intellipedia isn’t as effective because the service lies behind a firewall and is used by a limited number of people. Instead, material gets more prominent placement if it is tagged, or appended by the network’s users, with descriptive keywords.
