12-17-2002, 09:20 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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Google vs. Evil
"The world's biggest, best-loved search engine owes its success to supreme technology and a simple rule: Don't be evil. Now the geek icon is finding that moral compromise is just the cost of doing big business."
This is the kind of story that has made Wired such a great magazine - this article about Google was a real eye-opener for me...who knew running the biggest search engine in the world was such a political business? Read the article - it's superb!
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12-17-2002, 09:42 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,386
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Great story... I never noticed myself how Google runs without pop-up ads and the such. Having read that, I certainly appreciate their approach. I particularly found interesting how they had to deal with the "Church" of Scientology regarding an anti-Scientology site.
Funny how Google really came out of nowhere and became the world's premiere Internet search tool. Seems like yesterday when I was working at Geocities and we were relying on Yahoo, AltaVista, and HotBot.
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12-17-2002, 10:04 PM
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Sage
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 713
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A really good story - Wired often has well written, in depth stories that you won't see anywhere else.
Of particular interest was the fact that Google can be such an easy target for lawsuits. I can't see them surviving long after an IPO however. The public ownership would cause a great deal of mystery to be revealed about how they rank sites which would allow them to be "played," as pointed out in the article. Hopefully, they will continue as is for some time.
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12-17-2002, 10:36 PM
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5000+ Posts? I Should OWN This Site!
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 5,133
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I'm surprised they gave in about the Scientology issue.
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12-17-2002, 10:45 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kati42
I'm surprised they gave in about the Scientology issue.
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Well, that's the thing. They did, and yet they didn't. If you do a search for Scientology now, xenu.net is the 2nd link.
--janak
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12-17-2002, 11:25 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,386
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Janak Parekh
Quote:
Originally Posted by kati42
I'm surprised they gave in about the Scientology issue.
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Well, that's the thing. They did, and yet they didn't. If you do a search for Scientology now, xenu.net is the 2nd link.
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Hey, that's funny. You're right, xenu.net is right there in the 2nd and 3rd positions under Scientology. Makes me wonder exactly what concession Google gave up. I wasn't surprised to read that they gave way to the Scientologists... those guys have quite a legal team...
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12-17-2002, 11:30 PM
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Philosopher
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 513
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I'm also tickled about that Chilling Effects type concession work-around, that would add only like one extra clicking for the users but would legally protect them?
Is is because that was so effective that this church backed off and let Google reinstate things like they were?
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12-17-2002, 11:46 PM
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Ponderer
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 68
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A very interesting read indeed. I Google exclusively, they do a great job, but I didn't realise there was so much money to be had from something like this. From reading the article it sounds like going Public might be a bad idea - what plans do they have that they would need extra capital for?
On a related note, I see Jason has a new 'thoughts' website - maybe he is trying to achieve in the 'thoughts' area what Google has done with searching. More power to him, I envy him for having the balls to try and make a living from something like this.
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12-17-2002, 11:51 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Jul 2003
Posts: 191
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Xenu....
Just for grins I read a bit of the Xenu site. Pretty incredible. Wonder if it's really true!
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12-17-2002, 11:57 PM
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Editor Emeritus
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 15,171
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Re: Xenu....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sunnyone
Just for grins I read a bit of the Xenu site. Pretty incredible. Wonder if it's really true!
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If it wasn't, Scientology wouldn't be suing them for copyright infringement, they'd be suing them for libel.
It's a pretty heart-wrenching read if you go fairly deep into the site.
--janak
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