

Is Google Evil? - justinwhitefoot
http://www.oreillynet.com/windows/blog/2005/08/is_google_evil.html

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sammyo
Watch any good movie with the devil, he always presents himself as a really
nice guy with just a really great deal for the world. Not that I'm going to
stop using gmail or anything.

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mixmax
It is only a matter of time before they become like any other large company,
AKA evil.

The turning point was their IPO, after this they had had at least some
responsibility to public shareholders. Public shareholders in general want the
stock to rise. Not in a year, not in six months, but now. This means
shortsighted decisions, that can hurt their image. But you don't see this on
the quarterly report, since longterm benefits in form of image get sacrificed
for short term benefits.

Also like any other growing tech company, the suits come in and take control.
And all they care about is quarterly earnings and bonuses.

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ekanes
You can't judge a big company's soul based on small granular events unless
they form a pattern.

Blackballing CNet was a bad move, as was agreeing to work with the Chinese
government to censor search results, but if you're in a judging mood you have
to look for the bigger picture, in which they do more good than evil. You'd
also want to find articles like this:
[http://blog.domaintools.com/2008/01/google-to-kill-domain-
ta...](http://blog.domaintools.com/2008/01/google-to-kill-domain-tasting/)

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paulsb
It's all about image. When Google came on to the scene, everybody loved them
(including myself) for supplying innovative technology that brought more order
to something that was growing ever more disordered, and they were sticking-it
to Microsoft as an under-dog as well. However, recently, I feel more and more
people (including myself) are concerned over privacy (not just Google, but
Facebook, etc.), hence, the ever rising rate of suspicion towards Google. I
even find myself liking Microsoft because they appear to be the under-dog now
in terms of internet technologies, and particularly after that Bill Gates
video about his retirement - he seems like an alright guy! If Google did a
video like that, then I am sure people would warm to them (even more). Doing
good deeds every now and then just makes Google seem as if they are doing it
for the sake of keeping face, whilst the Gates Foundations loud publicisings
puts Microsoft in an increasingly positive light.

