Google (GOOG) is a scourge to many newspaper executives, who blame the Internet behemoth for taking all their ad money and readers. CEO Eric Schmidt gave another spirited defense of why it’s the Internet, not Google, that is hurting newspapers, and how his company is trying to help.

Google is being unfairly blamed for the declining newspaper-industry revenue resulting from shifting reader habits, Schmidt told Search Engine Land’s Danny Sullivan in an interview posted over the weekend.

“Because we play such a central role in information, we’ve become somewhat used to being blamed for everything,” Schmidt said. “Imagine if Google didn’t exist. Would the same criticism still exist? You betcha.”

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The social Web has given users great power: the ability to create and share content with people around the world–easily and quickly. The problem, of course, is that power is often not compatible with effective and clear thinking. The thought that germinated in an instant can be immortalized in perpetuity on the Web.

With the extraordinary growth of the Internet and the interlinking of information that the social Web has brought with it, it’s time to examine the footprints we leave on the Web as we move into the future that promises to “throttle the ‘wisdom of the crowds’ from turning into the ‘madness of the mobs,’” as described so eloquently by Jason Calacanis.

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Several months ago I ventured into the spooky economics of information with a post that suggested that data had an increasing marginal utility. A number of folks who know a whole lot more about economics than I do argue that it was not exactly an increasing marginal utility, but they acknowledged that there was something weird going on. Relying again on my naiveté, I thought I’d try another post on the weird economics of information. It is almost certain to be wrong. Hopefully it will be wrong in an interesting and useful way.

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Facebook launched a bunch of new privacy controls today and has received a significant amount of positive press as a result. The praise is perhaps not so deserving–as the new privacy controls can be easily evaded.

The new privacy settings allow users to customize which friends can view specific details in their own profile. Users can lock down specific bits of information to their friends, friends of friends, or even particular individuals. There is, however, a significant design flaw present in this new feature.

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In the early days of the Web, going online was heralded as a great way to connect with other people who have had experiences similar to your own. The Web was a place to get answers, advice and community no longer limited by the geographic location of the individuals you connected with.

While all of that remains true today, the ubiquity of the Internet, the ease of publishing and the rise of online advertising has lead to the emergence of new kinds of Web sites: productivity, how-to and advice/Q&A sites that broadcast, scale and monetize that kind of information.

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New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s prostitute scandal is all the big news here in New York, but the lesser known tale is how an information system–the U.S. Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network–played a role in his downfall. On the surface, Spitzer’s downfall is a New York tabloid’s dream. Headlines like “Ho No!” scream on the New York Post. Wall Street is downright gleeful about Spitzer’s downfall. But what really snared Spitzer was a money-laundering investigation that was flagged by SARs (suspicious activity reports) that banks have to file with the Treasury to surface everything from money laundering to terrorist activity.

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An Eastern Kentucky lawmaker wants to ban Kentuckians from anonymously posting information on the Internet. State Rep. Tim Couch (R., Hyden) filed a bill that would require anyone posting on interactive Web sites to first register using their legal names, addresses and valid email addresses. Couch, however, said he won’t push the bill–he just wants to draw attention to the growing presence of anonymous and often mean-spirited comments on Web sites.

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Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has stopped using the Web site Facebook, the most damning indictment in a week full of bad press for social-networking technology. Social-networking Web sites, which help people share and find information about one another, were supposed to change the way people use the Internet and the way we work. But lately, all we’re hearing about are the problems.

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The same way light confuses scientists by existing as particles and waves at the same time, information increasingly seems to confuse us. Information is getting cheaper and more expensive at the same time, and it appears that many of us, especially those of us who own or control a great deal of it, no longer understand how to observe or use it.

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The great revolutionary activist of our day, Robert Scoble, is battling for the ideal of data freedom with the evil forces of Facebook. At issue, writes Kara Swisher in a post titled “Free the Scoble 5,000!!,” is “how much control you should have over your own information online.” Mathew Ingram chimes in, saying “there’s no question that the information itself should belong to Scoble.” Sounds black and white. Scoble: good. Facebook: evil. But it’s not quite that simple. When Scoble broke into Facebook’s databank, he opened a Pandora’s Box, and I would argue that neither he nor Facebook is in the right.

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I’m a sucker for charts’n’graphs. The only thing better than data is data about data. Data about data is information that, in quantity, becomes knowledge, which is just a short hop away from wisdom. And when wisdom shows up, you know you’re this close to figuring it all out.

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