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Don't be evil.

Google has made my life a lot easier. I have been on the net long before Google began to make a splash. So I remember the days where searches either resulted close to nothing, nothing relevant or forced you through a world of blinking, bundled products and other stuff intentionally thrown at you, that had no relevance to your search.

Google is also the company that makes GMail or Google Mail here in Germany. A product that is to be considered illegal by German law, yet somehow exists over here, even with its own brand name, due to trademark issues. Then again it’s not uncommon for web companies to not really comply with German consumer and privacy laws like with Amazon. In Google Mails case its simply not allowed for any one to shift through other peoples emails, be it a human or machine, regardless of what they end up doing with that information. It’s for similar reasons why sysadmin can go to prison for installing a spam filter. Btw in Amazon case it’s because they force upon their users the out-of-country processing of their personal data (along with an extensive data trail that they claim is not personalized).

Anyways, Google always said "Don't be evil". These days they have changed the wording to say "You can make money without doing evil". I liked the first variant better as it stated intent to not be evil, the other just states the possibility. Google just setup the Google Foundation and put up over $100 million for various projects. Holy shit, alot of money! Maybe they should just lobby to pay more taxes. You gotta wonder where this kind of money comes from that people can afford this after doing business for less than 10 years. Is the company really worth that much? Their thousands of servers? Their infrastructure? Their brand name? Their IP? Their employees? Their ability to aquire new highly talented employees? Or is it just their ability to get small time stock holders back in the game that put up the money to finance the pull out that someday might happen? But I digress.

But seriously, as I noted Google does not have these obnoxious blinking popping ads that the other guys have (or have had). However Google still makes the overwhelming percentage of its income from ads. Google states that they only show ads for relevant topics. More over they do not show ads for "evil" products like "guns", "sex" etc. (oh actually they do show ads for "sex" guess I am half puritan thinking they would consider that "evil"). “Ads” is short for advertisement. I wonder why Google does not call them “cofo” as in “consumer infos”. Going by their argument this is actually what they are.

Of course that is crap. If I wanted to get information on these products I would freaken search for them! So I guess its right that they call them ads. This makes it clear that they are in the business of manipulating people to by stuff they would not otherwise have a need of buying. They are in the business of stuffing information down by throat I was not looking for.

At the same time they have found a less annoying way of doing so. So maybe we should thank them for this? Then again now it makes much more sense that they switched away from "Don't be evil". Since "Be less evil" did not make their marketing department quite confident enough they at least proclaim it’s possible to not be evil, even if you make money. So maybe we should be thankful that they at least proclaim hope. Hope that some corporation might actually be able to not be evil. I wonder if it would be any better if they just sold the technology to companies that then make their money on ads? Or here is a thought: maybe one day all ads on Google will be for charitable causes, you know, the kind that keep third world countries where they are for ever, because they choke all chances of building up a sustainable economy of their own? I am such a cynic. Actually the Google Foundation seems to sponsor VC projects in Africa. So maybe they are just importing modern day slavery to Africa, how ironic. Damn where is my medication?

Anyways on a less sarcastic note I want to make clear that I think its ok for companies to make money. I also think that in the grand scheme of things Google at least makes an effort to not be evil which positively sets them apart from the bulk of the rest. However I do not believe in the idea of stock driven corporations. It shifts responsibility into nirvana as both the owners as well as the executives can push of responsibility to the other side. This is exactly the crux of the matter which led the very convincing documentary "the corporation" conclude that corporations fit all the criteria of a psychopath.