When not Doing Evil isn't Enough
Ari posts some pictures of the US and German Google home pages for today and writes:
In Germany, Google celebrates der Mauerfall; in the U.S., Google celebrates the Count.
Presumably, Ari’s disappointed in Google or maybe Google’s perception of what Americans want to see today. But why? Is Google responsible for commemorating every important historical event on their homepage? Is he disappointed that Apple isn’t commemorating the fall of the Berlin Wall today? The University of Nebraska–Lincoln isn’t commemorating it either (on their homepage), is he disappointed in his employer? But Ari’s not the only one who makes these types of demands of Google.
Why do we expect so much from a company that sells slices of our attention as they help us navigate the internet? It seems that “not doing evil” is actually pretty hard for a ~$170B company to pull off (or else why would that cute little slogan get so much traction?). Asking them to live up to an infinite number of expectations of the good seems like asking too much.
