When You Google Hypocrisy, Do Your Search Results Include Google?
The other day, Google announced that it will NOT serve eggs, in its cafeterias, from chickens which are treated inhumanly. I applaud the efforts of Google to do their best to make sure that animals are treated well.
This is a noble cause, which gains Google reputation and costs Google very, very little in dollars. Even if it doubles Google's egg costs these few hundred dollars a week or even a day are pocket change to a multi billion dollar company like Google.
Due to this egg thing we now know Google's stance on animal treatment. Their actions, which cost the company virtually nothing, show that they are clearly against animal mistreatment. Now let's look at what their actions say about human mistreatment, when it can gain the company millions of dollars.
In January Google chose to censor itself in China in order to increase market share. They will offer a special Chinese version of Google, allowing the communist government of China to dictate which search terms are NOT allowed, and even manipulating search results to give the person using the search engine the false impression that the majority point of view on a subject is in line with the Chinese government. In other words, when you or I Google a word we may get 100,000 web sites, but when a Chinese person Googles the same word they may only get 1,000. These 1,000 are approved by the communist Chinese government, and probably agree with the “official” Chinese view.
So, if a Chinese citizen wants to learn about his government killing people in say Tienanmen Square, he cannot do so with Google. So, when it comes to human mistreatment, Google's actions appear to show an indifference, but when it comes to animal mistreatment they are clearly against it.
Is this the same Google who refuses to give a couple of days worth of search info to help the United States government restrict child viewing of pornographic web sites? (By the way, their stand against assisting America didn't cost too much in dollars either.)
What could cause a company to stand up for animals and cave in on human abuse?
What about a child's right not to have porn pop up on their computer?
Could the lure of the largest emerging market in the world cause dollar signs to obstruct Google's view?
In all fairness to Google, it is a company, not a person. Making money is what it does, and the concessions to the Chinese open up massive opportunities for Google to make profit.
While their self censorship does not help the Chinese people get out from under an oppressive regime (help mistreated humans), at least they are not causing them harm directly. As long as they are not doing as Yahoo apparently has done and actually causing people to be arrested in China, I don't have much problem with their lack of corporate moral compass.
I DO have a problem when a company with questionable morals on human issues gets on its moral high horse and touts what a wonderful citizen of earth it is because it buys the right eggs for the cafeteria. Don't you?
Read more about it...
Google goes free-range News.blog CNET News.com
Think for yourself.
Make up your own mind.
This is a noble cause, which gains Google reputation and costs Google very, very little in dollars. Even if it doubles Google's egg costs these few hundred dollars a week or even a day are pocket change to a multi billion dollar company like Google.
Due to this egg thing we now know Google's stance on animal treatment. Their actions, which cost the company virtually nothing, show that they are clearly against animal mistreatment. Now let's look at what their actions say about human mistreatment, when it can gain the company millions of dollars.
In January Google chose to censor itself in China in order to increase market share. They will offer a special Chinese version of Google, allowing the communist government of China to dictate which search terms are NOT allowed, and even manipulating search results to give the person using the search engine the false impression that the majority point of view on a subject is in line with the Chinese government. In other words, when you or I Google a word we may get 100,000 web sites, but when a Chinese person Googles the same word they may only get 1,000. These 1,000 are approved by the communist Chinese government, and probably agree with the “official” Chinese view.
So, if a Chinese citizen wants to learn about his government killing people in say Tienanmen Square, he cannot do so with Google. So, when it comes to human mistreatment, Google's actions appear to show an indifference, but when it comes to animal mistreatment they are clearly against it.
Is this the same Google who refuses to give a couple of days worth of search info to help the United States government restrict child viewing of pornographic web sites? (By the way, their stand against assisting America didn't cost too much in dollars either.)
What could cause a company to stand up for animals and cave in on human abuse?
What about a child's right not to have porn pop up on their computer?
Could the lure of the largest emerging market in the world cause dollar signs to obstruct Google's view?
In all fairness to Google, it is a company, not a person. Making money is what it does, and the concessions to the Chinese open up massive opportunities for Google to make profit.
While their self censorship does not help the Chinese people get out from under an oppressive regime (help mistreated humans), at least they are not causing them harm directly. As long as they are not doing as Yahoo apparently has done and actually causing people to be arrested in China, I don't have much problem with their lack of corporate moral compass.
I DO have a problem when a company with questionable morals on human issues gets on its moral high horse and touts what a wonderful citizen of earth it is because it buys the right eggs for the cafeteria. Don't you?
Read more about it...
Google goes free-range News.blog CNET News.com
Think for yourself.
Make up your own mind.