Google Gazing

Why is it that Google is held to such high standards? Blake Ross (a Firefox co-founder and Google employee) wrote a lengthy and critical post a few days ago suggesting Google was being evil by trying to cross-promote some of its other products from its search results page. This prompted TechCrunch to pile on that Google has become arrogant, and that Google needs to do a better job of meeting its “Don’t Be Evil” corporate motto (editor’s note: Can someone please put “Don’t Be Evil” out of its misery?) and it has to “stop treating the outside world with disdain”. Michael Arrington even suggested Google facing a tipping point where public opinion of it could change.
I realize it’s a quiet time of the year when inspiration for blog posts is difficult to generate but, come on, suggesting Google’s could fall from grace because it’s arrogant is a huge stretch. Google’s a business; it’s not a public service to provide the world with superior search. It’s has a dominant position, it has a $140-billion market cap and a few billion dollars of cash collecting dust in the bank. And, more important, it has a search engine far better than anything else out there…at least for now.
So what does a company with market dominance, financial clout and serious strategic ambitions do now? It pushes forward and leverages its position as aggressively as possible to capitalize on the window of opportunity. Sure, it will piss people off along the way who don’t agree with its strategy, modus operandi, new services of the way its two co-founders behave publicly. But that’s how a business operates - not every company can be as altruistic and non-evil as Craigslist.
The fact Google has a growing number of critics, who are more than happen to jump on any mistakes or mis-steps, is a fact of life when you rule the roost. Unless another search engine starts to rival Google, or Google starts to make egregious blunders (or the stock plummets amid disappointing financial results), there’s no tipping point on the horizon.
For more thoughts, check out Ars Technica and Allen Stern, who longs to be a “Googler” one day.

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