Maybe it’s time for Google to rethink its ‘Don’t be evil’ motto

[Commentary] “Don’t be evil.” That’s Google’s unofficial motto, in case you didn’t know. In 2004, when the company went public, its founders even based the company code of conduct on the phrase, which has since become known as the “Don’t Be Evil’” manifesto.

The first signs that Google was brewing plans that were not-exactly-not-evil might have actually come in 2009, when it signed a partnership agreement with Verizon Wireless. Slowly but surely, we’ve watched Google try to find a way into spaces where its search is increasingly less relevant. That’s where Google+ comes in. Google+, unveiled in June, is the company’s first real answer to Twitter and Facebook. A few weeks ago, Google made one of the biggest changes to its search product. If you happened to be signed in to your Gmail account, Google search began including — no, not just including, but promoting — Google+ links inside of your search results. Sure, you can turn off this personalized search feature, but many users might not know how. So if you had searched for Ryan Gosling, it might have also displayed information about other people named Ryan that you’re friends with or showed you images that your friends have shared at the top of image results. This week, Google announced another radical change to Google search — but this time on the back end. It said that beginning March 1, Google would begin integrating information about searches you run while signed into a Google account, including your Android phone, with data from 59 other Google products such as Gmail and YouTube.

The real problem is that Google’s search policy shift and the change in its privacy policies suggest a shift in core values at the company — values you didn’t need a road map to figure out a few years ago. Those were values that placed the user first and stood in stark contrast to monopolistic practices of companies like Microsoft in the 1990s. They were Google Values, and they felt right. They felt good. If Google can’t see how perverse some of its decisions look today by comparison, maybe it’s time to rethink the company motto.