biscuit - 9:42 am on May 24, 2007 (gmt 0)

I'm an academic, and I'd argue that the problem is with the universities, not with Google. Fact is, submitted work should be just the start of the evaluation process. Students should then have to defend (in person, without notes) the facts and opinions they offer in their work. If they can't the work is valueless (whoever wrote it), if they can, then they've done their research (and could probably write their own paper).

But this face-to-face dialigue with a tutor is time-consuming and requires the universities to actually take a personal interest in the students they are educating. And that's just not cost-effective.

It's not Google's job to fix a broken tertiary education system. But I'm delighted that they have started to remove some of the types that have been giving adwords/adsense a bad name. Their purge of essay-writing services seems to be the latest step in that direction (though perhaps some worthy and entirely honourable essay-writers may care to present an opposite view?)