Google is being bombarded with lawsuits and criticism around the world. So what became of the California company that everyone loved and that lived by the credo ‘Don’t Be Evil’? According to Philippe Escande of France’s Les Echos newspaper, Google has encountered the inevitible backlash against all innovators, ‘whose careers always begin in euphoria and usually end in the courts.’
For Les Echos, Philippe Escande writes in part:
Google always gives the impression of being a child caught with his fingers in the jam. “We’ve done nothing wrong!” exclaims Google’s legal director upon receiving the questionnaire sent by competition authorities in Brussels.
The company, which boasts of wanting only happiness for humankind, is finding it increasingly difficult to maintain its holier-than-thou stance. European investigations, condemnations from Italian leaders and trials being conducted everywhere: not a week goes by without the now extremely wealthy Google being questioned about its practices. Not to mention its showdown with Chinese authorities.
It’s not its fault. The Californian company is suffering under the iron law of the innovator, whose career always begins in euphoria and normally ends in the courts. Edison, Microsoft and Steve Jobs have all experienced this before.
But the world of capitalism is no paradise, and the opposite side of the coin of success is called profitability, growth, domination, power and … abuse of power. If Google wanted to remain the Good Samaritan of the Internet, it should have followed the path of volunteerism like Wikipedia.”
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