News Source: http://searchengineland.com
Published: Apr 18, 2008 - 05:54 am
Story Found By: JeremyLuebke 1397 Days ago
Category: SEM
Bad PR move on Google’s part. We as online marketers know that "Don’t Be Evil" has taken a back seat to big business principles for a long time, but admitting it to the general public may cause a perception change in the general web population. I don’t think Google realizes how much harder it will be to compete and keep or gain market share if they are no longer the web’s darling.
7 Comments
Comments
’Don’t be Evil’ is such a minimal standard that it really is pretty useless for anything. .. and who defines evil? I think they would do better to spend time revisiting their mission. They’re out to catalogue all information and make it useful. If they want to play with satellite photos for Google Earth, I guess it’s OK if their shareholders agree. But all this delving into HTML files behind forms! I think they should get down to more productive work like eliminating more of the spam results from regular Web and blog searches. <end of rant>
Barry,I don’t think you’ve reported this correctly. The quote in its entirety is:"Janis Wardrop, associate lecturer in organisation and management at the University of NSW, said that, regardless of Google’s stated motto, companies are always set up to look after their shareholders and not other stakeholders. "It [the motto] is good PR but really it’s empty because it’s questionable whether shareholders will care [whether Google is evil or not]," she said."I interpret this to mean that Janet Waldrop said that sentence, whereas your post makes it appear that Mayer did.DF.
WOW! Google’s motto has had a large influence on me and made me a Google fan. It’s the warm fuzzy feeling you get. It’s hope for the future of our country and the world. It MEANS a lot to me and I’m sure I’m not the only one. If Google dropped or changed that motto, I’m out. I will sell my Google shares and bail on the Internet marketing industry. Well, maybe not, but you get my drift. I have been hoping, dreaming, wishing that Google could show that a company can grow, become huge and still be long term focused, ethical and good. Too many public companies are just worried about next quarter’s earnings report. They (publicly traded corporations and the Government) are wrecking our country and selling our souls to China for a buck. I’m not a conservative or a democrat, because they’re both screwing it up. Don’t let day traders mess up a good thing. Please Google, please stick with the motto and the culture! Good vs. Evil Google vs. Microsoft I’m on Google’s side until they drop the "Don’t be Evil" motto.
Have to agree with drunkenfilosofer there Barry; the SEL article does make it seem as if Marissa commented on whether stakeholders would care about whether Google is evil or not... but when you read the full article, that statement’s attributed to Janis Wardrop.
Like it. I always wonderedd about this a as a motto. Anyway, who defines what is and isn’t evil??
Google Does
Eh, not much information to be interesting, how much more do i need to say