Google fights evil, except when it doesn’t
By Mike Moran. Filed in Internet Marketing |Tags: Censorship, China, China v. Google, credit card, Google, Search Engines, Searching
Image via CrunchBase
All eyes are on Google, 24×7, it seems. Google’s latest news is big enough for CNN, because it features a steel cage match among two gotta watch wrestlers, Google vs. China. I applaud Google’s pressure on China to relax its information barriers by trying to evade the Great Firewall of China. Censorship of information is evil and Google is on the right side of this one, no matter whose engineers win. But Google seems to be on the side of evil in at least one other area.
Recently, I wrote about how the Internet makes it hard to fool everybody, talking about how a few slimy companies are trying to sneak credit card charges past unsuspecting customers. Little did I know that Google is doing the same kind of thing.
My wife uncovered a fishy-smelling offer from an e-Commerce site powered by DoubleClick (you know, the company owned by Google). Pardon me for thinking this is evil and somehow against Google’s mantra.
Now understand that I haven’t been one to point out every Google transgression (real and imagined) to hoist it with its own petard. Far from it. My belief is that most big companies make many more mistakes than commit acts that are truly malicious, but it is hard for me to give Google the benefit of the doubt here.
These offers purport to give you a discount on a purchase, but in the fine print they set up a recurring charge on your credit card to join some kind of discount club. Now it’s remotely possible that a few people really do shop prolifically at these sites and that the discount truly outweighs the monthly charge, but I would bet it is an infinitesimal percentage. My guess is that the vast majority have no idea that their cards are to be charged and think they are getting a deal on their purchase, and nothing more.
Surely Google knows this, if for no other reason than customers must be calling in droves to have the charges removed from their bills. It’s not illegal, but it is evil. How exactly is this different from those evil spammers that are fooling Google? Both DoubleClick and spammers are trying to fool people for their own gain. If either party were open about what they are doing, their game would no longer be effective. That sounds kind of evil to me.
So, how about it, Google? Kudos for your stand on opening up some sunshine in China, but what about shining a light on your own shady business practices?
Wednesday, March 24th 2010 at 11:11 pm |
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. I am becoming more and more fearful about the gravitational force they call Google. But what do I know. I was only born 20 years B.G. (Before Google)
What do you think? Should I/we be afraid of Google?
Friday, March 26th 2010 at 1:30 am |
hmmm i don’t think so its corrupt.. its depends to people how they used goggle…
i personally recommend Google searching because its gives me more result,, to choice and fine the answer… and enlighten my mind..
Sunday, April 4th 2010 at 3:34 pm |
Google is the slave to financials, if its in their best interest they will do no evil… if its not they won’t.
Saturday, April 10th 2010 at 1:50 am |
Google trying to be a “good company” and then they do this? I smell some kind of morality problem here, especially since they have so much against them who try to manipulate their search engine.
I was about to say that this is the way of doing businnes nowadays, getting people to sign up in things with a small print attached to it. But then it hit me, Google have just about all the money in the world, so why would the need to do something like this? It`s plain stupid, rude and kinda sickening..