This whole Google/Sicko fiasco is a little embarrassing. Now, I’m no supporter of Michael Moore. Personally, I find him obnoxious and I think he does more to make similar-minded people look sneaky and untrustworthy than he actually does to educate. I also think that Google is an awesome company. They’re incredibly forward thinking and quick to embrace modern business practices. This is how they were opened up to this mess.
Google has employees blogging on a number of different topics. This is great. It offers a level of transparency that doesn’t exist in most companies. It makes Google easy to trust. Google also prides itself in hiring the best people. Generally these people are probably very intelligent. One risk that will always exist with choosing human power over computer is predictability. Well, the lack thereof. This can manifest in a poorly thought out blog post.
The idea is not bad. It’s a good way to teach customers how to use Google’s products. And the issue is not the content, or ideas exposed, but the medium. A corporate blog is not a place to discuss opinions. This particular instance wasn’t catastrophic, but it could have been.
I’m not saying fire the woman. I’m not even saying punish her. Just remember to be very careful who is allowed to portray the face of your company. People are prone to making mistakes, and there are plenty of legitimate reasons for screwing up. Let’s try to avoid the stupid ones.
55 responses so far ↓
1 Holly // Apr 13, 2008 at 6:45 am
that was an interesting read. Thanks for the awesome post as always.
2 Kristian Liebrand // Jun 3, 2008 at 3:00 am
As far as I know this company hires one of the best people. I don’t see in any case that Google is trying to manipulate people, or in fact hiring people who are intelligent and stupid people.
3 Voice in the Dark // Jun 25, 2008 at 11:40 am
Even if a company decides not to be transparent and to disallow its employees to blog, there are many ways to leak valuable information. You can’t just shut everyone’s voice up
Thanks for the interesting post!
4 Marius // Jul 23, 2008 at 10:24 am
I too believe the things are often mixed up when Google’s employees are using blogs to post their own opinions. They should know better the implications of a post like the Sicko one. They should be smarter than that after all..come on.
5 lista de cumparaturi // Oct 24, 2008 at 9:22 am
Maybe some information should stay inside the company.
6 Brustvergroesserung // Dec 5, 2008 at 7:34 am
Well they always have some surprises but there is nothing we can do to avoid this actions, specially if google is the largest search engine worldwide but I agree that maybe some information should stay inside the company.
7 Marble Host // Dec 22, 2008 at 4:17 am
Hi,
Its true that all the employees are not giving correct answer of the question they are not at lest try to read what is the topic but i think some of them they are doing for time pass only.
But all the employees are not like that some of them also giving serious ans.
http://www.marblehost.com
8 Web Hosting Jack // Jan 13, 2009 at 9:46 am
I am abig fan of your blog and this post again make me to bring you to the top of my list
ChEeRs !
9 MarbleHost.com // Jan 29, 2009 at 4:48 am
Hello,
I manage a corporate blog for a Fortune 3 company and one of the largest challenges I have faced is that of a content delivery solution. In order for a corporate blog “web” to work there needs to be a quality RSS reader must site inside our firewalls and google reader won’t work. Getting employee to adopt the internal RSS reader has been a large challenge.
Thanks
10 Sleep Enough // Apr 1, 2009 at 8:28 am
To get into Google, you need to pass a notoriously tricky IQ test. I’ve seen a sample of their questions, and they are really way out of any stupid person’s intelligence level. So it’s not easy to get into Google.
11 christianforum // May 6, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Head smarts doesn’t always translate into common sense. I’ve seen employees, owners, partners, investors and contracted employees do some pretty stupid things. People just don’t think things through. I’m guilty of it too but sometimes certain things seem so obvious!
12 My Home builders // Jun 3, 2009 at 1:26 pm
I think that only individuals can affect a moral climate in the corporate world. As a corporate entity, the bottom line will always win out in a moral struggle. Our only hope can be that there exists some moral and ethical people in the right positions within the company who can instill and maintain some semblance of sanity in this area.
13 Web Hosting Asap // Jun 13, 2009 at 12:30 pm
As far as I know this company hires one of the best people. I don’t see in any case that Google is trying to manipulate people, or in fact hiring people who are intelligent and stupid people.
14 googlehomebusiness // Aug 3, 2009 at 11:22 am
Great post as always. Keep up the good work. I would love to read more of your posts soon. Cheers! Anyways, do you want to make money online? Try the newest google money master, and start earning bucks. This is your chance now! Don’t you miss it
15 rakeback // Aug 5, 2009 at 3:18 am
It’s true that a major search engine should stay neutral in these matters. That should be the case most of the time, but then there are always individuals who want to make a name for themselves, for better or worse.
16 Free Wii Points // Aug 28, 2009 at 3:06 am
I completely agree with what rakeback said.
17 Bobby Car Expert // Aug 29, 2009 at 3:48 am
I think the idea of blogging for the company is good, but each blog should be signed off by a line-manager before going live.
18 Attorney Smith // Sep 19, 2009 at 4:44 am
In order for a corporate blog “web” to work there needs to be a quality RSS reader must site inside our firewalls and google reader won’t work. Getting employee to adopt the internal RSS reader has been a large challenge.
19 Chris // Sep 25, 2009 at 12:21 pm
In political science classes, an iron-triangle was defined as the way media, corporate, and political interests connect.
What’s been happening, I think, is that Google is trying to get in on this triangle as an “official” media outlet.
In the meantime, Michael Moore, and yes even the rest of us who have blogs, are part of a more independent media that isn’t “strong enough” to cement the bonds of the triangle.
Every once in a while, Google tips their hand and proves they’re trying to get in on the game where NBC or ABC or CBS is at. You’ll know they’ve truly made it when they pay less in taxes than they get back from government contracts
20 PayPal Money // Dec 4, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Google is like some type of God on earth.
21 Wii Points // Dec 4, 2009 at 8:35 pm
Google owns more than 2% of all servers in the world.
22 tagesgeldvergleich // Feb 14, 2010 at 11:18 am
But what points?!
23 Depotvergleich // Feb 14, 2010 at 11:19 am
Bananas?!!
24 Music Boxes // Feb 19, 2010 at 8:10 pm
I love Michael Moore and his movies. It’s very compelling and you will definitely know the truth behind any anomalies that the government does.
25 divorceattorney // Mar 9, 2010 at 4:20 am
I like britneyspear…. so cute
26 Digital Cameras Sydney // Mar 10, 2010 at 12:29 am
People actually like Michael Moore…? I can’t stand the guy!
27 orlando criminal defense lawyer // Mar 14, 2010 at 7:04 am
I like digital comment
28 Julie Adams // Mar 25, 2010 at 3:15 am
Well they always have some surprises but there is nothing we can do to avoid this actions, specially if google is the largest search engine worldwide
29 Career Resource // Mar 25, 2010 at 6:23 am
This surprised me. But how can you stop all the ways that can be used to leak information. And I guess that employees are very loyal to the companies they work in.
30 investing funds // Apr 2, 2010 at 3:27 am
Irresponsible blogging should be stopped. And this can be done through various rules and regulation. Google is giant in field of search engine. There must be proper guideline so that person who don’t know about blogging can learn from that.
31 orlando-bankruptcy-attorney // Apr 2, 2010 at 10:13 am
Blogging is the best part of backlinks
32 tampa-bankruptcy-attorneys // Apr 7, 2010 at 3:15 am
I appreciate what you post here.
33 Atlanta criminal attorney // Apr 30, 2010 at 8:22 am
Hello,
I am an Atlanta Criminal Attorney. Blogs are opinion from people out what they have in mind. Therefore, Web managers must create another way on how to adopt into them.
34 Jorge // Jul 9, 2010 at 12:36 pm
Kate…
Buy celebrex…
35 Atlanta Law Firm // Jul 12, 2010 at 9:59 am
As long as there are blogs, people will express opinions. As long as people express opinions, other people will disagree. That doesn’t mean any one person is right or wrong, it just means that opinions often create disagreement.
36 Unfiled Tax Returns // Jul 23, 2010 at 11:11 am
People should try to focus on business issues on business blogs unless the blog specifically states that they will, or are, giving opinions.
37 kevin // Aug 10, 2010 at 11:14 am
What can you expect?
38 Diverse Blogger // Oct 24, 2010 at 3:13 am
Google Blogger Blogs are great!
39 Mark @ Regrow Hair // Nov 7, 2010 at 4:55 am
At Google, they have a very rigorous hiring process and they only take the best. But the thing is, even the best people make mistakes and sometimes they even make very stupid mistakes. Mark from Regrow Hair
40 Perpendicularity // Nov 14, 2010 at 8:24 am
You say, “Google and irresponsible corporate blogging…” Well, humans are always prone to mistakes, but I’d rather see more humanoid effort as opposed to all this computer trash & techno gadgets running the world. I guess you could call it, “Man vs. Machine.” Yeah, any type of writing can be full of mistakes, whether it is creative, promotional, informative, poetry, philosophy, etc. Oh, nice blog by the way. I see that it is full of all types of random topics…
41 Mark @ 11 Forgotten Laws // Dec 3, 2010 at 6:46 am
I’m convinced, all big corporations try to manipulate people - at least to a certain extent and as long as they can get away with it without any problems.
42 dianna agron from glee // Jan 12, 2011 at 12:41 am
yea, hard to take on google on anything. they are huge.
43 7noor // Mar 14, 2011 at 11:54 am
Google blogger is so much careful about all thing.
I think any one to unable to play false with google.
44 red sea holidays in Egypt // May 27, 2011 at 5:23 am
I noticed nearly all libs repeat almost exactly what their leader says. He can replace his party with a group of macaws and not see a change in response to questions.
45 ParkesJohn2011 // Jul 20, 2011 at 7:40 am
It is very nice post.so Blogging is the best part of backlinks created them…
46 Juns @ Glyconutrients // Aug 18, 2011 at 8:25 am
Google blog writers is a confused lot…even their are glitches in its search algorithms in some places..
47 Mundane Blogger // Aug 29, 2011 at 1:38 pm
Google and Irresponsible Corporate Blogging? Google is a giant with some very sophisticated methods that are geared towards success. However, when you use the terms ‘irresponsible’ with ‘corporate’ while speaking about something that everybody from age 5 to 95 does, such as blogging, my head starts to spin as I really don’t even know where to start with this comment… Ha-ha!
Either way, there is a lot of irresponsibility and incompetence in this world, and those two traits are growing at a rampant rate amid society, regardless of what this blog post is actually speaking about.
At any rate, keep up the good work with all of these random blog posts you have here; I notice that it also encourages a lot of comments as well, albeit it doesn’t hurt to veto the spam on occasions… Cheers!
48 Nutrisaa // Sep 16, 2011 at 7:52 am
Good and very interesting topic, searched for this for a long time. U have given me the info Thanks.
49 Search Engine Optimisation // Sep 19, 2011 at 8:16 am
Thanks for the insight
50 Calgary Fire Sprinkler // Sep 23, 2011 at 2:29 am
Blogs helps a lot in our businesses. plus its very entertaining to read good articles like
this
51 Life Insurance Policy Sale // Oct 5, 2011 at 4:02 am
That was very true, creating the company’s blog means its the virtual face of the company. It’s very hard if you got some errors that will put your company to go down.
52 manchester web designers // Dec 17, 2011 at 8:06 pm
The corporates have to be careful and responsible when it comes to blogging as they are opening themselves up to a community which are good as good a judge as anoyone else.
53 personal trainer preston // Dec 17, 2011 at 8:08 pm
Soon the universe will be renamed to Google!
54 Fibroids Miracle // Dec 26, 2011 at 2:28 pm
Google: yes. Not perfect, but who is. Would be very surprising if they allowed an employee to release a blog post to the internet that would reflect badly on the company.
Mike Moore: No! Even though generally agree with some of his opinions, his presentation is very undesirable, he’s one of the many I wish would simply shut up and we would be blessed to never hear from them ever again!
55 Mundane Life // Dec 27, 2011 at 3:26 am
Yeah, but Google has some awesome products and excellent search engine technology. I tell ya what, if my Firefox browser keeps acting up, I may even switch over to Google’s browser, Chrome. Firefox has always been great, but this last update of theirs sucks!
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