> Google has always been known for their lofty ideals ...
Notice you said "they are _known_ for their lofty ideals" it doesn't mean they live by their ideals.
> They are the company you can trust to walk away from billions...
If they already make hundreds of billions, walking away from 1 billion doesn't seem that bad in exchange for a PR win and more billions comming in the future.
> We saw that in their interactions with China. We saw that when they owned up to the data they accidentally collected driving down the street. We saw that when they changed their rules to make it harder for spammers to put adsense on temporary landing pages.
My personal measure for company idealism is this : "the amount of revenue (both long and short term) they are willing to give up in order to abide by their ideals". Was China a major market for them? No. They raised a PR stink only after they realized it was lost cause and they might as well drum up some PR points for it. Then capturing of too much private data -- well, if it was a lawsuit coming because somone could have leaked it, there's not much idealism at work there as damage control. Changing their rules to block spammers -- also just trying to cut out the irrelevant noise, to make their ads more focused.
> I've been a Google fan boy for a long time but this week they lost my respect.
I have set asside my respect for Google after their IPO. Not because they did anything wrong, but because I knew it would come to this. Don't get me wrong, they are still a good money making machine, but that's all they are -- a big friggin' money making machine. Google doesn't have a soul, it doesn't have a moral sense, it is here to make money. If it stops making money it wil vanish. If telling people you are "good and not evil" makes money, they'll tell people that, if getting in bed with Verizon makes them money -- so be it.
I for one, don't blame Google. They are just now performing according to my expectations and behaving like a large, publically owned company should behave. I am still baffled at the large number of intelligent and rational individuals who have been misled by Google's PR over these years.
Notice you said "they are _known_ for their lofty ideals" it doesn't mean they live by their ideals.
> They are the company you can trust to walk away from billions...
If they already make hundreds of billions, walking away from 1 billion doesn't seem that bad in exchange for a PR win and more billions comming in the future.
> We saw that in their interactions with China. We saw that when they owned up to the data they accidentally collected driving down the street. We saw that when they changed their rules to make it harder for spammers to put adsense on temporary landing pages.
My personal measure for company idealism is this : "the amount of revenue (both long and short term) they are willing to give up in order to abide by their ideals". Was China a major market for them? No. They raised a PR stink only after they realized it was lost cause and they might as well drum up some PR points for it. Then capturing of too much private data -- well, if it was a lawsuit coming because somone could have leaked it, there's not much idealism at work there as damage control. Changing their rules to block spammers -- also just trying to cut out the irrelevant noise, to make their ads more focused.
> I've been a Google fan boy for a long time but this week they lost my respect.
I have set asside my respect for Google after their IPO. Not because they did anything wrong, but because I knew it would come to this. Don't get me wrong, they are still a good money making machine, but that's all they are -- a big friggin' money making machine. Google doesn't have a soul, it doesn't have a moral sense, it is here to make money. If it stops making money it wil vanish. If telling people you are "good and not evil" makes money, they'll tell people that, if getting in bed with Verizon makes them money -- so be it.
I for one, don't blame Google. They are just now performing according to my expectations and behaving like a large, publically owned company should behave. I am still baffled at the large number of intelligent and rational individuals who have been misled by Google's PR over these years.