Difference between revisions of "Google"
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Google has been labeled "professionally irresponsible" for disseminated [[Cambodia]] territory, which is embroiled in a bitter diplomatic row with Thailand over the demarcation of the frontier. <ref>[http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/02/05/cambodia-google-idUSSGE61406G20100205 Cambodia blasts Google map of disputed Thai border, Reuters, February 5, 2010]</ref> | Google has been labeled "professionally irresponsible" for disseminated [[Cambodia]] territory, which is embroiled in a bitter diplomatic row with Thailand over the demarcation of the frontier. <ref>[http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/02/05/cambodia-google-idUSSGE61406G20100205 Cambodia blasts Google map of disputed Thai border, Reuters, February 5, 2010]</ref> | ||
− | [[Costa Rica]] took offense to Google Maps version showing that a specific area of encampment was on Nicaraguan soil. The dispute that | + | [[Costa Rica]] took offense to Google Maps version showing that a specific area of encampment was on Nicaraguan soil. The dispute that had ensued over Google's version of the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border has became rather serious. So much so that the secretary general of the [[Organization of American States]] had to intervene. <ref>[http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20021977-71.html Envoy to solve latest Google Maps border dispute? CNET, November 5, 2010</ref> <ref>[http://spectregroup.wordpress.com/2010/11/12/google-maps-blamed-for-border-dispute/ GOOGLE MAPS BLAMED for BORDER DISPUTE, Spectre Footnotes, November 11, 2010]</ref> |
Google Maps was busy fixing another error in its map program of a port city that reignited border tensions between [[Germany]] and The Netherlands. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/21/google-maps-slipup-sparks-diplomatic-crisis/ Google Maps Blunder Reignites Centuries Old Border Dispute, Fox News, February 21, 2011]</ref> | Google Maps was busy fixing another error in its map program of a port city that reignited border tensions between [[Germany]] and The Netherlands. <ref>[http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/02/21/google-maps-slipup-sparks-diplomatic-crisis/ Google Maps Blunder Reignites Centuries Old Border Dispute, Fox News, February 21, 2011]</ref> |
Revision as of 00:05, February 26, 2011
Google is a company whose primary business is Internet-based services, including an extremely popular search engine. Google is associated with liberal causes and has been criticized for catering to communist China in censoring information from the people as requested by dictators:[1]
- Reporters Without Borders joined others in asking how Google could stand up for US users' freedoms while controlling what Chinese users can search for. Its previous search engine for China's fast-growing market was subject to government blocks. The new site - Google.cn - censors itself to satisfy Beijing. While cooperating with China's govenment, Google refuses to fulfill requests by the U.S. Department of Justice. [2] Google counsel Nicole Wong said "..we intend to resist their motion vigorously."
Google has also been accused of delisting conservative news sites from its search engine. As one of many examples, "In February 2005, Michelle Malkin wrote of the difficulties she was having becoming part of Google News."[3]
Much of Google's business depends on pornography. For example, 25% of search engine requests are for pornography.[4]
In addition, although claiming to generally avoid getting involved in matters outside their field, Google officially supports the liberal and social libertarian cause of so-called "same sex marriage."[5] On June 21, 2009, Google displayed a special multicolored line for searches on the word "gay". More troubling, Google recently announced plans to compensate employees to cover taxes paid on their domestic partner's health benefits, but only offers its 'generosity' to gay couples. [6]. Google is also big promoter of Charles Darwin and atheistic science, even to the point of giving special recognition to the anniversary of Darwin's birthday ("Darwin Day").
Major competitors of Google include Yahoo! and Microsoft's Bing.
Contents
Corporate Information
The CEO of Google since 2001 is Eric Schmidt. Google is headquartered in Mountain View, California. Google was founded on September 7th, 1998, by Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Since then, it has grown to be the largest internet search engine in the world. According to Alexa Internet, over 25% of all Internet users visit Google monthly.[7]
Google also owns YouTube, the homemade video clip site. Viacom is suing YouTube, and thus Google, for a reported $1 billion, arguing that the economic model of YouTube is based on copyright infringement.[8]
After much debate about their corporate Code of Conduct, Google's founders settled on the all-encompassing "Don't be evil", saying,"It's built around the recognition that everything we do in connection with our work at Google will be, and should be, measured against the highest possible standards". [9] This Code of Conduct has generated much criticism, saying they have missed that mark badly.
History
Founding
Google was originally a research project, started by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1996, when the two attended Stanford University. The two registered the domain name google.stanford.edu, and the small search engine went online for the first time.[10]
Growth
The year Google was created 1998, it had amassed 26 million unique URLs in their database. By 2000, Google had indexed more than 1 billion pages. As of July 2008, Google has indexed over 1 trillion pages. [11]
Competition
Microsoft has been aggressively competing with Google for a larger share of the search market. Their latest effort, Bing.com, is a "next generation" search service which has generated positive reviews.
Secular Progressive Culture
Google's West Coast headquarters hires a majority of left-leaning personalities, explicitly in executive decision-making.[12] Google supports causes that are a radical departure from traditional American views, such as their public support of a 'no' vote for California's Proposition 8, which defined marriage as being between a husband and wife. Also in a subtle way, they favor politically-correct global liberalism, championed by secular progressives. They select certain days of importance for tribute, some of which are controversial. As such, Merry Christmas is replaced by Happy Holidays. Even though, poll [13] after poll [14] after poll [15] shows the public prefers 'Merry Christmas'. The problem may be that Google doesn't respect traditional Christian holidays, in favor of a 'culturally-correct' approach. In addition, Google accepts the Theory of Evolution by Charles Darwin as fact, promotes Darwin on their homepage with a Google Doodle logo. [16]
Google often honors Russia with their logo of Sputnik and for composer Igor Stravinsky. However, they did not honor United States Flag Day, June 14. (Their competitor Bing prominently displayed Old Glory.)
Google versus Conservatives
- Many instances whereby information is comprised ideologically and displayed for the masses. Watchdog website NewsBusters.org published that Google had in fact labeled conservative American Spectator as "This site may harm your computer." [17]
- Google continues to block pro-family website MassResistance. Some people complain his organization promotes hatred towards homosexuals. Google gives the standard legal trash as an excuse "'Users may not publish material that promotes hate towards groups based on race, ethnic origin, religion, disability, gender, age, veteran status, and sexual orientation/gender identity.'" MassResistance replies "Of course we are not promoting hate against anybody." [18]
- YouTube owner, Google continues to protect Planned Parenthood by removing undercover videos exposing abortion clinic law-breaking. [19]
- Without any prior explanation or notice, Google had been terminating its News relationships with conservative e-zines and web journals. [20]
- Google attempted to minimize global awareness of the ClimateGate emails and the truth about the anthropogenic global warming theory, whence the term "Googlegate" gained recognition across the Web. Non-coincidentally, Al Gore is on the Google advisory board.
- Curiously, leading up to Restoring Honor 8-28-10 -- on Google Maps -- the Lincoln Memorial was being misplaced in favor of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, which is a good half a mile south of the more famous memorial.[21] This may have been an ongoing, known problem or bug in Google Maps that hadn't been fixed yet; or, Google is censoring search results; or, Google is playing with searches for political power and gain.
Google versus Anti- Obama Blogs
The question immediately raised, "Did Google Silence Barack Obama critics?" It turns out, no they did not. A group of separate blogs were targeted by their spam filter as a result of manipulating the 'flag' feature. This caused a temporary blockage for five days. Sites affected were Hillary supporters and all anti-Obama. They include http://bluelyon.blogspot.com, http://comealongway.blogspot.com, http://hillaryorbust.blogspot.com and http://mccaindemocrats.blogspot.com and their main associate JustSayNoDeal.com [22]
Google bombing
Perhaps the most innovative contribution Google has made to internet searching is its PageRank algorithm. This system works by counting the number of sites that link to another site; the more links pointing to a page, the higher that page will be ranked. The engine also takes note of how often the page is updated. Due to this, Wikipedia is consistently ranked very highly by Google, due to its constant updating and heavy linkage. More recently, internet-savvy Googlers have discovered ways to game the system; creating massive numbers of pages with links pointing to one page to form what is known as a "Google Bomb". Some examples can be found below.[23]
- "Miserable Failure": For nearly two years, typing "miserable failure" (or even just "miserable", or "failure") and then clicking "I'm Feeling Lucky" in the Google search engine would return the White House Biography of George W. Bush.[24] This was orchestrated by Democratic Party supporters in late 2003,[25] as part of the 2004 Presidential election. However, at times, Conservative supporters were able to shift the phrase to Jimmy Carter, Hillary Clinton and Michael Moore.
- '"Great President": returns the White House Biography of George W. Bush.
- "Waffles": Also as part of the 2004 Presidential election, Conservative supporters managed to link the term "waffles" to the official website of John Kerry.
- "French Military Victories": Hitting "I'm Feeling Lucky" for this term directs you to a fake Google page (in reality, it is an AlbinoBlackSheep.com page, styled to look exactly like a Google page, here) giving no matches, and asking if you meant "French military defeats?".
- "Weapons of Mass Destruction" would bring up a similar page with the error message 'not found.'
On January 25, 2007, Google claimed to have modified their PageRank algorithm to lessen the likelihood of future Google bombs[26]
Controversy
Tax Dodging
A report by Bloomberg News has Google setting up offshore banks accounts to avoid paying taxes on foreign profits. More than $3.9 billion dollars have made it to Bermuda bank accounts over the last several years. Google has cut its effective tax rate abroad to just 2.4%. The practice is common and George Soros has been known to place his billions of dollars in Cayman Island banks. This costs the U.S. government more than $60 billion dollars in revenue. [27]
Privacy Concerns
Google has been criticized by privacy activists and others. Recently, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt said, "We cannot even answer the most basic questions because we don’t know enough about you. That is the most important aspect of Google’s expansion." [28] Google has attempted to "remedy" this situation by storing search information, in effect, keeping tabs on people for two years after they search. This has led Google critic Daniel Brandt to create "Scroogle.org", which runs Google searches that users conduct through his organization's personal servers to prevent Google from being able to connect any personal information to the searchers. [29]
Hypocrisy on Net neutrality
Neil Stevens of Redstate.com notes that Google says one thing and does another, tarnishing their reputation in the process. He lists where Googl e emphasizes support then does what they want in regards to shutting down access. [30]
International Agitation
Google's Map service is responsible for escalating tensions between foreign nations by radically misleading versions of current borders.
Google has been labeled "professionally irresponsible" for disseminated Cambodia territory, which is embroiled in a bitter diplomatic row with Thailand over the demarcation of the frontier. [31]
Costa Rica took offense to Google Maps version showing that a specific area of encampment was on Nicaraguan soil. The dispute that had ensued over Google's version of the Nicaragua-Costa Rica border has became rather serious. So much so that the secretary general of the Organization of American States had to intervene. [32] [33]
Google Maps was busy fixing another error in its map program of a port city that reignited border tensions between Germany and The Netherlands. [34]
Google executive Wael Ghonim helped with protesting Egypt's rule of Hosni Mubarak, calling for him to step down and organizing protests. He was detained by authorities and released after two weeks. Ghonim is credited as being a major factor in sparking Egypt's uprising. Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that Google is "very, very proud" of Wael Ghonim. [35]
References
- ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4647398.stm
- ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4630694.stm , BBC Google defies US over search data, January 20, 2006
- ↑ http://newsbusters.org/node/5477
- ↑ http://internet-filter-review.toptenreviews.com/internet-pornography-statistics.html
- ↑ http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/09/our-position-on-californias-no-on-8.html , Our position on California's No on 8 campaign
- ↑ http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/07/01/google-raises-eyebrows-new-gay-employee-benefit/
- ↑ Alexa Traffic Results for Google
- ↑ Viacom will sue YouTube for $1bn
- ↑ Google Code of Conduct
- ↑ Corporate Information:Google Milestones
- ↑ Google reveals scope of Web-crawling task CNET News, July 25, 2008
- ↑ See [1] for a list of board members and senior staff.
- ↑ Wish Me A Merry Christmas Campaign Crusades to Change Retail Culture PRWeb, November 26, 2008
- ↑ 68% Prefer “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Holidays” Rasmussen, November 27, 2008
- ↑ Poll: More Americans prefer 'Merry Christmas' greeting CNN, December 20, 2005
- ↑ [Scientists unveil fossil of Darwinius masillae]
- ↑ Google Claims Conservative Website ‘May Harm Your Computer’ December 28,2007
- ↑ Accusation: Google targets, blocks pro-family website again OneNewsNow.com, July 15,2009
- ↑ YouTube Bans Student Group's Video Showing Abuse at Planned Parenthood Christian News Wire, July 21, 2009
- ↑ Is Google Purging Conservative News Sites? NewsBusters, May 22, 2006
- ↑ Sarah Jacobsson Purewal. Google Maps Misplaces Lincoln Memorial, PC World, Aug 28, 2010.
- ↑ Google and the Anti-Obama Bloggers NYTimes June 30, 2008
- ↑ Dropping 'Google-bombs'
- ↑ 'Miserable failure' links to Bush
- ↑ In October, Johnson, a Democrat, added the phrase "miserable failure" to his Web site, Old Fashioned Patriot. He then linked the site to the online White House biography of President Bush and asked others to follow his lead
- ↑ Bush no longer "miserable failure": Google tackles googlebombs
- ↑ After news of Google tax dodges, Obama raises money with Google execs, Washington Examiner, October 22, 2010
- ↑ http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c3e49548-088e-11dc-b11e-000b5df10621,dwp_uuid=e8477cc4-c820-11db-b0dc-000b5df10621.html
- ↑ http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=55935
- ↑ Google undermines the Internet, RedState.com, August 23, 2009
- ↑ Cambodia blasts Google map of disputed Thai border, Reuters, February 5, 2010
- ↑ [http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-20021977-71.html Envoy to solve latest Google Maps border dispute? CNET, November 5, 2010
- ↑ GOOGLE MAPS BLAMED for BORDER DISPUTE, Spectre Footnotes, November 11, 2010
- ↑ Google Maps Blunder Reignites Centuries Old Border Dispute, Fox News, February 21, 2011
- ↑ Google CEO Eric Schmidt says company is 'very proud' of Egypt's Wael Ghonim, LA Times, February 15, 2011