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.
Micro$oft being evil as always. Google’s only recommending a better product.
Comment by ditchms | November 13, 2005
[…] 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. […]
Pingback by Damien Mulley’s Blog » Blog Archive » Scoble does a Ballmer - Throws a chair at a blogger | November 13, 2005
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.
Comment by Artem | November 13, 2005
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.
Comment by status | November 13, 2005
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
Comment by Asa Dotzler | November 16, 2005
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.
Comment by Nathan Weinberg | November 16, 2005
Google has ruined the Web.
No wait, Google has raped the Web.
The democratic nature of the Internet has been subverted by Page Rank and silly Google rules.
They encourage spam and put non-profit sites on page 10.
Their search engine sucks.
Google Desktop and Book Search is the biggest invasion of privacy.
Their customer service sucks. They are more reclusive than hermit crabs.
“Do no evil” my ass.
Good PR can take Google this far and they know it.
It is pathetic to see the mindless drones of Google praise their every fart on blogs.
Sad.
End of rant.
Comment by deprofundis | May 23, 2006
Given the power of Google, I have thought of a way to teach them and Yahoo a lesson. All you have to do is ask 1,000’s of others around the world to visit Google/Yahoo daily and to search under the more epxensive terms ie insurance, real estate etc. Then, click though on the top 5 or 6 a couple of times, just enough not to raise awareness that this is click fraud. If this happens every day with thousands of different people eventually the advertisers wil cease to use the pay per click and it could cause huge problems for Google/Yahoo etc as 90% of their income and value of the company/shares is in PPC. It would be interesting to see if this could be done as an experiment but the difficulty is how do you get the message across to 1,000’s of people worldwide?
Comment by Peter Richardson | October 6, 2006