Week 4 Analysis

Google – “Don’t Be Evil”

I have always been interested in Mergers & Acquisitions so I subscribe to a number of different sites and magazines to keep abreast of what is going on in that world. I have watched with interest and curiosity as Google continues on its buying spree. Google of course has become one of the better known companies in the world. It has become such a huge part of our culture that the name can now be used as a noun or a verb. It originally positioned itself as a young, hip, upstart company but now has become the same type of monolithic company that it once mocked.

Google’s unofficial slogan has long been “Don’t be Evil” (Weinschenk, 2010) but that seems to matter less and less based on past and current behaviors. I personally use Google quite frequently which puts me in the majority. Through a series of acquisitions Google has now moved into so many areas that it will become more difficult to opt out of using Google’s services if you so desire. Did you know that there is a subsidiary of Google called Google Energy? They can now buy and sell electricity (Cashmore, 2010). Now, you don’t have to worry about paying them for your home or business’s electricity yet but the possibility is there and that’s not the end of it.

At the time of this blog, Google has bought and owns approximately 500 different domain names and approximately 80 companies (Ricard, 2008). They are almost literally everywhere there is on the web except for “closed” platforms like Facebook. Facebook is a big thorn in the side of Google and they are trying their best to get Facebook to open up to them because that’s 500 million users (Slattery, 2010) that Google cannot access. Google mission statement is “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” (Google Inc, 2010). On the surface this sounds fairly benign however you must realize that whoever controls the knowledge and information controls the most power. This may have sounded like a conspiracy theorists rant but it is just a brief and simplistic look at a company that has become a large part of our current popular culture.

Bibliography

Cashmore, P. (2010, February 20). Mashable Business. Retrieved November 30, 2010, from Mashable.com: http://mashable.com/2010/02/20/google-energy/

Google Inc. (2010). Company Overview. Retrieved November 30, 2010, from Google.com: http://www.google.com/corporate/

Ricard, A. (2008, February 18). Who owns Google, and who does Google own? Retrieved November 30, 2010, from Searchwarp.com: http://searchwarp.com/swa300671.htm

Slattery, B. (2010, July 19). Tech and gadgets. Retrieved November 30, 2010, from msnbc.com: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38310046/ns/technology_and_science-tech_and_gadgets/

Weinschenk, C. (2010, April 10). Data and Telecom. Retrieved November 30, 2010, from ITBusinessEdge: http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/weinschenk/googles-new-slogan-dont-be-naive/?cs=42700