After a 2006 marked with unparalleled growth, high-profile acquisitions, and launching of new services, Google has a lot of work ahead to top itself in 2007. As the new year begins, the company seems to have stumbled coming out of the gate.
Sometimes it can be difficult to find negative things to say about Google. The company continues to excel at providing high quality search results, launching innovative new services, and forging a pioneer-like path in the realm of online marketing.
Upon closer examination, however, it seems that Google may be slacking on some of the finer points as we enter into the new year.
Last week, users reported that their Gmail accounts had been completely wiped out. All of their e-mail information (messages, contacts — the whole enchilada) was gone faster than Denny Green’s unceremonious departure from the Arizona Cardinals coaching staff.
Google attributed the information loss to a “glitch” in the system, but conceded that the messages were indeed lost forever in the virtual abyss.
For a company that prides itself on providing and managing information on a high-level, this is a blunder of uncharacteristic proportions.
Gmail, however, wasn’t the only service to see difficulty in the waning days of 2006. Ork, Google’s social networking site, experienced almost an entire day of downtime that prompted withdrawal-like crankiness from its users. Google’s Calculator also decided to take a swan dive into the lake of dysfunction on New Year’s Day as well.
There are other factors involved in Google’s slow start to the new year, such as public perception. Rene LeMerie claims that the company’s recent self promotion defies its “Don’t Be Evil” mantra.
Have you tried doing a search for a service such as “calendar” or “blogging” recently? It appears Google has started promoting its service in the organic results. When you do either of the two searches mentioned above, you’ll see a “tip” that promotes Google Calendar and Google’s Blogger platform respectively.
When you’re a search engine that lives by the motto – “don’t be evil”, such self promotion would have to be considered questionable. People have relied on Google’s search results, as they have trusted the results to be relatively unbiased. So when Google starts manipulating their results page for their own gain, it places doubts as to the genuine objectivity of their search engine.
Michael Arrington over a TechCrunch weighs in on this as well:
Part of the problem is that Google has always held itself to a higher standard than other companies. We took them seriously when they said their corporate motto is “Don’t be evil”. It was the right thing to say when they were young and battling the hated Microsoft. But today, as they begin to put themselves before what’s best for their users, that motto is coming back to haunt them.
The popular slogan when it comes to publicity is that “any PR is good PR”. In Google’s case however, that line of reasoning doesn’t apply. Companies that need publicity will do anything and everything to get a mention within the public consciousness. Google, however, isn’t in dire need of recognition. The company is a household name in the online world, and this kind of negative public perception can only hurt them in the long run.
Googler Matt Cutts gives Google’s side of the story regarding the events of the past week:
Google the organization in many ways mirrors the character of its employees. Google is a very polite, consensus-driven company. Usually if you get everyone in the same room and everyone explains their reasoning, the best decision emerges pretty quickly. As a result, I can’t recall ever hearing someone shout at Google. Even when issues are hotly debated, we tend to keep our discussion and our self-criticism within the company. So for me to be “far more critical” on my blog is not what Google needs right now. If anything, that’s more likely to burn bridges than to solve issues. I don’t have the outsider status that Scoble did. If disagree with something Google does, I go directly to the Googlers involved and I discuss it with them. I’m lucky to be enough of an old-timer that I usually can find the right person to ask, bug, or cajole.
Here’s the other thing you need to know about Google. We listen and respond to the feedback we hear. Google makes mistakes, just like anyone or any company does. That’s a given. The important thing is how you react to those mistakes. In an ideal world, you find out quickly when something has gone wrong. You correct it as soon as possible. And then you ask yourself “How can I try to prevent this issue from happening again?”-just like you’d do when you found a bug in a computer program. With any luck, future failures won’t happen unless several circumstances align against you.
Is it all just a coincidence? Did the planets mystically align in such a way that within a week Google experienced negative public stigma concerning its AdWords practices as well as a massive breakdown in service functionality? I suppose it’s possible.
However, it is also possible that the company may be finding itself just a little too comfortable at the top of the mountain. Perhaps recent events will provide a much-needed wake up call to Google.
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Joe is a staff writer for Murdok. Visit Murdok for the latest ebusiness news.