Making media companies that you hope to sell is not a lot of fun for anyone who cares deeply about making media.

It's become something of a ritual - every year, Google publishes its year-end summary of what the world wants, and every year I complain about how shallow it is, given what Google really knows about what the world is up to.

We overthrew the feudal system in the 1600s, and the theocracy in the 1700s. But currently, corporations play similar roles in many of our lives, either directly or indirectly.

The old internet is shrinking and being replaced by walled gardens over which Google's crawlers can't climb.

Where one industry stumbles, another rises up.

Making media companies that you hope to sell is not a lot of fun for anyone who cares deeply about making media.

The only thing Google has failed to do, so far, is fail.