The controversies of this week have exposed Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” mantra as the hollow platitude it always was. So it’s nice to see that, apart from being morally questionable, they can also be really dumb. At least as far as Bitcoin is concerned, according to Reddit and a report by Motherboard.
See No Evil
On Monday, we found out that Google had exposed the private data of up to half a million of its Google+ users. This would be bad enough but, apparently, Google knew about this back in March, and didn’t tell anyone. It seems they were worried that disclosure might bring “immediate regulatory interest.” Of course, you don’t want to risk the regulators seeing how not evil you are being.
The issue was so bad that the Google+ service was shut down.
Then came news that Project Dragonfly, Google’s secret project to enter the Chinese market by kowtowing to government censorship, is perhaps less theoretical than previously suggested. A leaked meeting transcript contradicts the official company line.
Hear No Evil
And now, thanks to Reddit, we hear that Google thinks Warren Buffett is the CEO of Bitcoin. Well it’s either him or Jamie Dimon… or Roger Ver. All three of these unlikely characters popped up when searching for “CEO Bitcoin.”
Which of course, isn’t a company… and if it was, there aren’t three more implausible CEOs. Two have described bitcoin as “rat poison squared” and a “scam,” and one doesn’t think bitcoin is really bitcoin any more.
After some publicity, Google has now changed those particular search results, omitting the carousel of likely candidates. The search now pulls up a list of stories about the previous error, which is mildly amusing.
Speak No Evil
Google has a chequered history with cryptocurrency, first banning Chrome browser mining plug-ins, and then all cryptocurrency advertising from its platform, back in April this year. The advertising ban has since been semi-eased, as regulated crypto-exchanges can now advertise again, if only in the US and Japan.
But can we really trust a company that has to go around telling people how evil it isn’t?
What are your thoughts on Google — evil, clueless, or both? Let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Bitcoinist archives, Shutterstock.