Google's "U-turn" on "Do No Evil"

After a long break, I am back to my normal critical self. This time its none other than my once-upon-a-time favorite company "Google" under the axe. Let me give you my perspective on what I think made Google so big and famous - "Do No Evil". Google was not the first search engine on the web. Google was not a perfect search engine either. What differentiated Google from the rest of its competitors was that it provided the search engine with only the aim of providing the best service and not with the aim of getting the best margins or revenues out of the service.

This particular strategy was driven by a core value - "Do No Evil". Larry Page and Sergey Brin were not interested in monetizing the search engine but were more interested in providing the users with the most relevant and best search engine. Ad Revenues and the corresponding Google dominance in the web space was a by-product of their service offering and not the primary objective. The co-founders had even fought a long battle with the VC's to ensure that they didnt get into the game of making some quick bucks and exiting the space. When Microsoft was continuing to bundle its products and using its muscles to keep the competitors away, Google was concentrating only on providing the best service in every space it entered. What happened next is history, Microsoft has and is still completely out of the online market space.

So what has changed my perspectives on Google? Its nothing but the realisation that Google has stepped away from its core value - "Do No Evil". Its not the awful performance of "Google Chrome", "Android" and many of its other recent offerings but Google's persistence to convert its search engine users into consumers of these awful products. Its one thing to come up with bad products but its another thing to try to force the consumers to use the awful offering. It is exactly what Microsoft had been criticised for a very long time now but to see a company like Google do it is nothing short of shameful.

To microsoft's credit, they are atleast open about it bundling their offerings and say that they will do anything to keep the competition away and to have their way. Google, on the other hand has been marketing its "Do No Evil" crap all this long and slowly moving into Microsoft's strategy of bundling and forcing the consumers to use its products.

I (and am sure a million other users) have been personally disappointed by Google's shameful efforts to market Google chrome inspite of it being a completely crap browser. I hope they realise their true value offering and concentrate back on providing superior service or else the day is not far when we shall see the demise of this tremendous company. Beware Google.