Google is Sicko

I was going to post my opinion about the anti-Sicko Michael Moore post someone at Google posted a couple days back but now they recanted and I just read a perfect summary and report from MA at TechCrunch.

The movie, Turner said, “fails to show healthcare’s interest in patient well-being and care.” More than a few people disagree with that statement, and were immediately turned off by Turner’s comments. Particularly since there was a clear profit motive to the post – getting more advertising dollars.

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Knowing how rampant blogging is over at Google it’s just crazy to see there are no policies in order to censer the employees. Censoring has some very negative connotations but without it for corporate blogging a single person that gravely misrepresent an entire company with thousands of employees.

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July 01

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About the Author, Dan Cameron:

I'm the owner and solution engineer at Sprout Venture, a web solutions company that specializes in web development including WordPress.

I started my first blog in 2003 and transitioned to WordPress in 2004. Since moving to WordPress I've written a few plugins and themes for public consumption. Lately I'm busy engineering/building/coding and have only been able to share a few code snippets.

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  • But the whole point of that particular blog is to push advertising; it's a blog designed for Google's clients (current or potential) in the health care industry who pay for ads on Google's network, so the sales aspect of it isn't surprising to me at all.

    Whether they "as a company" would be able to make such a statement is an interesting question, and you could easily argue that through this blog that's exactly what they are doing.

    To me it's a refreshing breath of openness and honesty in the ad industry. You know that the salespeople for any other similar services are also saying the same types of things to their prospective clients, it's just that they do it in person or behind closed doors rather than out in the open for everyone to see.

    I thought she followed up with a satisfactory post apologizing for the confusion related to blurring the lines between her opinion and Google's position, but the bottom line is that specific blog is very explicitly all about health care related advertising on Google, so it's not unexpected for that subject to be brought up in her original post.
  • nstryker
    i think the most offensive thing isn't the content, but the fact that it is a push to sell advertising. that pulls away from google allowing expression to google allowing an employee to act in an inappropriate sales tactic. google would never be able to, as a company, publish a similar statement. by hiding behind the supposed freedom they give their employees google can get away with "participating" in all kinds of questionable sales tactics.
  • I see this as a very positive sign. It's great that (#1) Google doesn't keep their public facing employees on a very short leash and (#2) that the original article is still there for review, and not pulled down to try and cover it up.

    I think that it's excellent that Google makes room for their staff to have opinions, and even place them on a company related blog. I'd hope that most people would realize that the thoughts of one person do not necessarily represent Google as a whole, and whether some people may or may not realize that, I think it's great that Google is willing to err on the side of non-censorship.
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