20060131   

Don't be evil

Michael considered fate at 20:26   |   Permalink   |   Post a Comment

There is yet more interesting Google tidbits in addition to the update I just made to my post regarding Goobuntu below:

Update: An Arstechnica article claims Google denies plans to distribute OS based on Ubuntu:

Google press relations office[r], technology spokeswoman Sonya Borälv responded very quickly to my query on the topic. She said that "[w]e use Ubuntu internally but have no plans to distribute it outside of the company."

Google Removes Its Help Entry on Censorship! (follow link for screenshots)

It used to read:

Google does not censor results for any search term. The order and content of our results are completely automated; we do not manipulate our search results by hand. We believe strongly in allowing the democracy of the web to determine the inclusion and ranking of sites in our search results. To learn more about Google’s search technology, please visit ...

And now reads:

Document Not Found

Sorry, the document you requested is not available. You can visit the main page.

Nevertheless, Google's Help Center answer to the question "What can I do if a site in your search results ripped me off?" includes the paragraph:

It's our policy not to police content. Rather we hope that by including as much information as possible in our results, you'll be able to easily find warnings about rogue sites...

Even worse? Contrary to Google founder Sergey Brin's promise to inform users when their search results are censored, the company frequently filters out sites without revealing it.

Shoulda known all this was coming, though. As pointed out in a January 2003 article by Wired magazine entitled Google vs. Evil:

The world's biggest, best-loved search engine owes its success to supreme technology and a simple rule: Don't be evil. Now the geek icon is finding that moral compromise is just the cost of doing big business.