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Google's gone evil.
blogs.smugmug.com — Since they can't seem to win on things like features or being the best product, Google's resorted to violating their own Code of Conduct and promoting their in-house products above and beyond better outside ones. Doesn't this run contrary to the whole reason we search at Google in the first place - that we can rely on finding the best stuff?
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- kbarrett, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You make a really good point, Don.
I just did a search for 'photo sharing' and there is bright little blurb above the search results promoting Picasa Web Albums. I work over at Zoto and as another member of a photo hosting site I am also pretty dismayed by Google's blatant self promotion. It's downright unethical. They are using their 'brand' (which is trusted by consumers) to pimp their own products. I would love to know how many people perform a search just like the one I did and never bother to review the results because of the Picasa link. But I suppose they feel that as long as they sandwich their link underneath 'Sponsored Links' and on top of results it's OK.
As for whether or not the product(s) they are promoting are indeed 'inferior' as you describe I can't honestly make that claim about Picasa since I haven't actually tried it. Maybe you will feel moved to write a followup entry with a comparison.- onethumb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't have a problem with self-promotion - Yahoo and Microsoft seem to do it fairly often.
What I have a problem with is a double-standard (or what I perceive as a double-standard, anyway). Googlers are angry at the exact same measures being taken at Microsoft, and point me to their Code of Conduct while assuring me that they'd never do something like that themselves, because they're different.
And then they do it anyway.
I realize the few individual Googlers I've talked with don't set corporate policy, and I'm fairly sure they wouldn't be thrilled with this, but at least from my point of view, it seems like a slippery slope, especially when Google talks so much about trust.
BTW, I actually think Picasa is a great product, and PicasaWeb is interesting and I expect it will get very good as they improve it. I've written about it on my blog before: http://blogs.smugmug.com/onethumb/2006/06/14/welcome-google/
But both the "blog" and "photo sharing" search terms could easily recommend better products (Flickr? WordPress?) in their respective fields in the "tips" rather than their own, and retain some semblence of trust. Google Calendar may very well be the best calendaring system online, I don't really know, but I certainly know that there are a handful of better (using varoius definitions of better - pick your favorite definition) options for the other two.
Of course, picking other options then leads to kicking and screaming from those who weren't chosen (For the record, I wouldn't kick & scream if Flickr or Yahoo Photos or Zoto were chosen. Editors have to make choices, afterall). But it would be nice if the "tips" were open to other products than Google's, if they want to maintain their trust relationship.
- onethumb, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I don't have a problem with self-promotion - Yahoo and Microsoft seem to do it fairly often.
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