Whatever happened to "Do No Evil"? Google donating to the Heritage Foundation

[erodriguez]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/25/google-antitrust-microsoft-war_n_976804.html


The company known for its progressive politics is now giving money to the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the Republican Governors Association, the GOP firm The David All Group, Crossroads Strategies, the Republican Attorneys General Association and the Republican State Leadership Committee, among others. On Thursday, Google and Fox News cosponsored a Republican presidential debate.

[ixion]

1. They got big, that's what happened.

and then turned to the dark side, as companies so often do.

[DrunkenBoat]

3. funded by intelligence, always on the dark side.

[CarmanK]

2. THEM that gets, always, always wants more and now GOOGLE!

Is anyone really surprised?? This is a nouveau riche company that wants to keep all that it has made and to expand its market share. The way to do that is undermine democracy and support oligarchy. GOOGLE HAS come of age and it is now using the very resources it gained as an american company to deny others equal access to to MONOPOLIZE its area of expertise. It really is ashame, to see all those dreams and ideals surrender to lust and greed. All men are created equal, but those that have want more and they will do anything to deprive the others of the equal opportunity.

[lifesbeautifulmagic]

4. I get that when companies get big, they donate equally

to each side, but The Heritage Foundation? WTF is up with that, what could possible be in it for Google, unless they want to eliminate or change employment laws. Hello, non benefited subcontractors for every position, not just programmers.

Also, some of the other PAC or "think" tanks they are donating to represent the worst of the right wing anti progressive, anti progress, anti worker, anti everything. WHY, I wonder. Again, what could possible be in it for Google?

[Celebration]

5. Pressure from some of the major stockholders

Aren't there some private equity groups that are big stockholders?

But I am sure they give to anybody with influence. Anything to grease the wheels in DC! It is necessary for survival. If Google didn't play the game things could get really rough for them in time.

[jberryhill]

6. Some organizations operate like protection rackets /nt

[Major Nikon]

7. So when is DU going to drop them as a search engine?

[leftstreet]

8. +1

I hate Google

[Starry Messenger]

9. Capitalism wins out over all slogans.

Greater profits are the game. Morals are an illusion in this system. Their shareholders would dump them like a cat turd if they *weren't* evil.

[begin_within]

10. Plus they track you and remember your searches from 2 years ago, they

copy copyrighted data onto their servers and there's not a damn thing you can do about it, they delete blogs they don't like at their whimsy and with no advance warning or reason given, specific search results can disappear for no apparent reason, and actual searches produce DIFFERENT results on different computers, they cooperate with censorship in China, they have a ridiculous and mysterious PageRank system with which they can manipulate a site's visibility in their search engine (and they have been sued over it), their StreetView violates personal privacy, and Google reviews the contents of email messages sent to or from a gmail address! Also Google uses tax avoidance strategies to reduce its income tax bill dramatically. Although I have no proof of it, I am convinced that Google does manipulate search results to favor companies that pay Google in some way, either directly or indirectly. And Google slows down many other web sites that use Google Ads and google syndication services.

On the other hand, the good things about Google are:

1.

...um...

[Dragonfli]

11. On no! The same Heritage Foundation that first came up with Obomny care?

I thought we liked them now that we agree with their individual mandated approach to health insurance.

Really, it's hard to keep up sometimes, next you'll be telling me we hate the Chamber of Commerce the Author of 85% of the American Job Act. http://www.uschamber.com/sites/default/files/110905_jobs_letter.pdf

When do we hate them and when do we like them? Is there a calender or something?
I want to stay current.

[saras]

12. They're not doing evil, they're outsourcing it to experts. It's not their core competency.

[Fire Walk With Me]

13. Someone I know just deleted his Google account and lost a bunch of stuff on youtube

and elsewhere. Be careful, these things are all connected.