Google's Actions and Rhetoric are at Odds… Again

In yesterday’s San Jose Mercury News, Mike Swift cites five recent moves by Google that, according to the headline, “raise questions” about the company’s well-known “Don’t be Evil” motto. In particular, he points to the following:

According to Swift: “To many veteran Google watchers, that pattern of behavior represented a distinct break from the past for a company that promised its search results would be ‘objective’ and ‘unbiased.’”

Though Google tries to defend these serious violations as “mistakes,” people are no longer buying Google’s “don’t be evil” shtick. Steve Pociask, president of the American Consumer Institute said, “The [Safari] workaround, the hack trick, to me is the final indication that Google will do anything they can to dominate the market and to destroy their competition, and to collect consumer information even against their will. I think there are a lot of people finally alarmed.”

Meanwhile, Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land commented that “I hesitate to think they’ve gotten ‘evil,’ because they never were that ‘good’ to begin with.”

All proof that when it comes to Google, “trust us” isn’t enough.