Booleanings

I've been reading over my past couple posts and realize I need to say something. It looks like out of nowhere I'm just jumpin' on Google. Well, I guess it's true. I am.

But that doesn't mean I don't still love Google. Look where I'm postin' this...Blogger. What search engine do I use all the time? Google. What do me and my geeky library friends talk about all the time (that is, when we're not chit-chattin' about bibliographic control). Yes, again, Google.

It's not so much that I blame them for what they are doing as a publicly traded company, it's more of a public realization that they just might indeed be like everyone else. I still plan to use their services, and I still hope for big things in China, but I gotta tell you that I feel a little bit better about all those years I spent at the original evil empire. At least you know what you're getting with Gates and Balmer (and now maybe, Google).

Those insightful Brits accurately sum up what I was saying about the situation. Unfortunately for publicly traded companies these days (actually for the public, but that's a whole other post), principles may only something to aspire to. When push comes to shove, profits come first. End of discussion. I think Eric's letting Larry and Sergey know that running a multi-billion dollar corporation is a long way from Stanford.

"Don't be evil." That's the motto of Google, which was founded in 1997 and is now worth $129 billion, making it the fastest growing company in the history of the world. The mixture of unprecedented financial growth and squeaky-clean ethics has made Google the only company in the world which is perceived as simultaneously cool, successful and on the side of the good guys.

Or at least that was the case until last week, when Google announced that it was switching its search facilities in China to servers based inside the country, and that as part of that process it would be co- operating with Chinese government censorship of the internet. (Sunday Times 1/29/06)

The Times goes on to point out how part of the reason this big news is such shock, isn't because they've been cooperating with China censors (they've been doing that for a while), but because it's actually some bad PR. That's something those media darlings haven't had to deal with too much.

Again, I just have to say it's all about money. "Don't be evil" is a nice slogan when you want to lure the cream of the open-source crop to your lush Mountain View digs and the on-site dry cleaning isn't inspiring them to sign on.

Sure, they can argue, like they tried on the Official Google Blog, that playing by the rules in this instance allows them the opportunity to do GREAT THINGS in China in the future. But it's a slippery slope. It doesn't take long for argumentment to end up sounding like it came from Wal*mart, a company famous for shirking responsibilitytity as an employer by not providing a living wage or benefits to employees, and then justifying it as OK because in the end it helps the average Amercian family afford a fifth DVD player.

I can't say I'm surprised about the Google turn of events in China, but I can say I'm disappointed. I hope it doesn't go as far as it has in Redmond, but all those Microsoft is evil people on the web should consider taking note of this behavior. It may not be Microsoft that's evil -- it's money grubbing in name of "good business" that should get the blame. From my distant perch, it looks like Google is heading down that same path. Sigh...

Here's an interesting blog about google removing the censorship section of google help:

Maybe Google should change their motto from "do no evil" to "do no evil in when it suits our business model."

Here's to hoping I'm wrong...

Ok, so I got a little distracted and missed a few days (months). It wasn't my fault. I was busy with school, family, what have you. Problem with that lie is the I started this blog to cover what was going on with school, family, what have you. Sigh...

I promise. I’ll try to do better. I’ll be back, but I gotta get a cookie.