Who Has Had the Worst Year So Far??
We are less than two months into 2006 but it’s never too early to start noting who is really having a rotten year. Some might say the MSM, but they’ve really had a couple of rotten years. My pick is Google.
Not only has Google stock taken a beating this year, losing 25% from its January high and wiping out literally billions in paper wealth, but the company has taken a serious media beating. Google is the only major search company that has refused to turn over data on search terms to the federal government while at the same time agreeing to cooperate with the Chinese government as it censors internet content. Even Reuters, not normally one to bash business, notes “Google’s resistance contrasts with a deal the company has struck with the Chinese government to censor some searches on a new site in China …”. [link]. Democrat liberal representative Tom Lantos contrasted the China business to IBM’s dealings with Hitler during the run-up to WWII.
The company has admitted that it has records of most Google searches stored on its computers, data containing search terms and IP addresses. I’d imagine hackers who are able to break into financial institution servers and steal credit card numbers would be able to do the same to Google given the time.
Time magazine also didn’t do Google any favors by running a cover story on the company featuring a photo of the three guys who run Google with two of them in black t-shirts and all with big annoying grins on their faces [link]. This brought back bad memories of the start of the Internet boom, when teenagers with greasy hair and dirty t-shirts were cashing in millions on IPO’s and venture capital for businesses that in some cases never even made a profit before folding.
Google is also pitching a new desktop operating environment that is supposed to be a rival for Microsoft Windows. A feature of Google desktop is it allows a user to share his hard drive with other Google users but in order to do this Google actually copies data from your PC to a central server. For all this talk about the Bush administration and privacy, it appears Google is more of a threat.