Scoble Pulls Anti-Google Post
Microsoft’s Chief Blogger Robert Scoble pulled a anti-Google post from his blog yesterday. I’m reprinting it here (thanks to the Bloglines cache) for you to peruse.
Google employees push sites that only work with one browser
By scobleizer on Blog StuffAhh, let me get this right. Google is pushing a single-browser solution. And their employees are advocating putting code on your site that’ll turn off Internet Explorer.
I wonder what the reaction from the blogosphere would be if Microsoft tried such a strategy against Firefox?
At least now you know why I said Google would be nuts to do its own browser.
By the way, who has the most standards-based search engine? Hint: it’s not Google. Do a “view source” on MSN and Google and you’ll see the answer.
Oh, and who has a cookie that lasts until 2038? Ahh, yes, even Google knows the answer to this one!
You can learn that and lots of other things about Google on the Google Watch site.
First off, the most angry person from this post is probably Daniel Brandt, Google Watcher, who loses a very positive link from a very popular blog. Secondly, I believe Robert pulled the post because he believed he had erroneously portrayed Jason Shellen as advocating sabotage of Internet Explorer users. While Shellen’s linking to some code that breaks sites in IE and using code that encourages IE users to switch to Firefox, its not exactly on behalf of Google, and I haven’t seen anything to indicate Shellen as part of the contingent within Google that is working on the Firefox browser.
So, while Scoble’s post probably implied far too much, I think it still bears worth reading. I haven’t been blogging as long as the Scobleizer, but I haven’t pulled a post yet, and I think a simple use of the < del > tag would have been sufficient. Scoble raises some good points of the conflict of interest of a Google employee advocating anti-IE trickery, even if Google doesn’t technically own Firefox, and the employee isn’t involved in FF development.
If a Microsoft employee proposed a “Firefox sucks” banner campaign that was only hidden when the [if IE] tag was used, it would make Slashdot, and we all know it. This isn’t the same, and no one is saying that (yet), but I hope this issue gets the proper debate it deserves.
November 13th, 2005 at 1:10 pm
Micro$oft being evil as always. Google’s only recommending a better product.
November 13th, 2005 at 2:16 pm
[…] Scoble made a post and quickly erased it from his own blog which personally attacked a blogger because of who he worked for. For a guy writing a book on Business Blogging it appears he still doesn’t get some of the lessons to be learned from the book. It reminded me of that Forbes Article. Prime example really. The post was entitled “Google employees push sites that only work with one browser” mirrors are here and here. Since so many of Scoble’s regular readers read him via RSS, they are still going to get a copy of this in their feed. D’oh. In fairness Scoble apologised and if there’s one thing about Scoble it’s that he’s genuine. A good lesson is that once the “Publish” is pressed you simply cannot erase what you said, even when you pull it off your site a few seconds later. […]
November 13th, 2005 at 3:53 pm
As an author of the site quoted here I would argue, that Robert Scoble misunderstood the Jason’s post. Google employees were not “advocating putting code on your site that’ll turn off Internet Explorer”, they presented a code, that showed a specific banner to IE users. Every ad-network is doing similar things.
I bet, later Robert realized that he misread Jason words, and that’s why original Scoble’s post has been deleted.
November 13th, 2005 at 6:31 pm
So what!? I can’t even update my freaking computer at the MS site without switching browsers. I say let MS do whatever childish antics they want with IE promotion, I don’t think anybody cares.
November 16th, 2005 at 1:48 am
Um, “even if Google doesn’t technically own Firefox,” WTF? Not only does google not “technically” own Firefox, it doesn’t doesn’t own Firefox at all or in any way.
- A
November 16th, 2005 at 2:18 am
Asa, as we’ve been discussing here, Google’s relationship with Firefox is a complicated one, with Google hiring major members of the Firefox team, paying money to the Mozilla Foundation and doing usability studies for Firefox on their own dime. Google may not “technically” own Firefox, but it has a deep interest in the browser’s development.