Google’s corporate motto (formal or informal, I’m not sure) is supposed to be “Don’t be Evil.” Meaning, base your decisions about how to run your business on what’s most important, returning accurate, meaningful search results, and the money will beat a path to your door. Don’t attempt to manage content via “featured” sections, “value-added” articles and “user friendly” search helpers, the way competitors MSN and Yahoo do, just put the links up on the glass and let the people get on with their lives. Of course, there’s always room for improvement. The Google search bar, Page Link rankings and Google News and Groups have been great examples of adding functionality to the site, while staying the fuck out of the way of the content. The “Don’t be Evil” philosophy, and Google’s hands-off approach to content has led to ridiculously high customer loyalty and many have come to think of Google as a kind of internet “Public Utility,” in spite of their status as a for-profit organization. There have, of course, been scrapes in the past with censorship and litigation, most notably involving a long-running dispute between Scientologists and their opponents, but these have usually been motivated by lawsuits directed against Google.
Last week however, Google launched it’s own attack against LA-based retailer Y-Que, asking them to remove several pieces of offending merchandise from their online storefront, or forfeit the right to advertise on Google. These included T-Shirts bearing anti-Bush, Cheney, and Kerry slogans, as well as “other merchandise similar in nature to the items listed above.” Huh? Did I miss something? Now, I understand that a business needs to protect its own interests, and for that reason, Google blocks advertisers from buying such potentially inflammatory words such as “KKK” and “Hate Group,” but these are T-Shirts expressing a political viewpoint, something I’m pretty sure is protected by the First Amendment. It’s not hate speech, and it’s certainly not something that puts Google at risk of litigation, so what’s the deal? Google needs to explain itself, like tout de suite, or risk eroding the reputation that it has worked so hard to build over the past several years!
(Link via BoingBoing)