Google – Just incredibly stupid
Ξ August 8th, 2005 | → 1 Comments | ∇ Blogging stuff, Geeky Stuff, Rants |
So by now everybody knows the story that Google has gotten their corporate nose out of joint because a CNET reporter used the Google search engine to find and publish a few private goodies about Google CEO Eric Schmidt.
“Google has blackballed online technology news service Cnet News.com for googling Eric Schmidt, CEO of the Mountain View company, and including some personal information about him in a story last month. Google told a Cnet editor that it will not speak with Cnet reporters until August 2006…”. I now expect that bloggers and others all over the world are gonna roast Google’s Corporate nuts for this… I know I am.
The odd thing is that none of the information was really damaging… well maybe except for the part about how he hosted a $10,000.00 per plate fund raising dinner for Al Gore. That sorta tells you something about his politics, and more important, his IQ. So much for Princeton grads. On the other hand, he also contributed a chunk to the Bush fund. Hedging your bets old son? On the third hand, maybe $10,000 per plate to honor the inventor of the Internet isn’t so bad, right?
I guess I should say that I am not a fan of Google. I used to be… back when the search engine could actually be used to find something. Now, the never ending quest for profit has turned it into a pretty valueless product (though it is clear Wall Street does not agree). Searches now fail to provide relevant results and their Pay Per Click (PPC) sponsored listings just make the results more confusing. Click fraud is out of control as well. I stopped using Google over a year ago except for occasional image searches which they have thankfully not screwed up…. yet. I prefer the little known Vivisimo aka Clusty. The best SE I have found so far.
Corporate hypocrisy is not new to anyone, but this flagrant piece of ass-holiness from Google just about has to win some kind of award. It is probably the second worst example of hypocrisy (that I know of) in Internet history. The first, of course, was AOL complaining about SPAMers.
Google’s total lack of regard pertaining to privacy is well documented… and now we have them taking this holier-than-thou approach to invasion of privacy. If I were still using Google, I’d threaten to switch… but as that is now sort an empty threat… I guess I’ll just say Google Sucks.
on October 6th, 2005 at 8:18 am
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