Google’s Still Keeping Secrets
I was doing something that’s rather unusual for me this evening: reading the local paper. That’s surprising in and of itself, but at the exact moment that I openly commented about how there’s never anything interested to be found in our small town’s paper my eyes fell across an article about Google.
Huh. How’s that for quickly served crow?
The article (Link) is about Google and their behavior on Wall Street, and it starts with a line that is quite familiar:
Google Inc.’s declared mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible __ except when the data involves its own financial forecasts.
Why is that line so familiar? It almost exactly echoes one of my own headlines. That article was about Google’s reaction to CEO Eric Schmidt’s personal information becoming public… well, truth is that it was always public. The information about him was found via Google’s own search engine, ironically enough, but their response was less than understanding.
Of course, when it comes to other people’s information they are incapable of understanding why anyone would want to keep it private. It goes against their vision to keep other’s information sealed, and that includes copyrighted works.
So why does this come as a surprise? Or does it? Google’s tendacy to keep secrets (their own secrets at least) also extends to Wall Street, of all places. Seems like their pendulum-esque stock prices are at least partially caused by their unwillingness to release earnings projections. The same information that other companies routinely give out.
It looks like the “yours, not mine” behavior is hard wired into these guys, but I bet that they’ll continue pilfering our information at every possible opportunity. Heck, I can’t wait to see what sort of “let me snoop your data” clause will be inluded as part of their online storage service. It would almost have to be more invasive than their desktop software’s “new feature“.
I suppose we’ll have to wait and see on that one.
~Steph
Topics: Waste Basket |
March 9th, 2006 at Mar 09, 06 | 3:29 pm
[…] Some have commented on how they think that Google is buying up more than they can chew. Thoughts that Google has “lost its way” are often expressed. However, anyone familiar with my previous post (or indeed, my tone towards Google in general) will know that there’s more to this purchase than a company that has lost its focus. […]