Letters: Mar. 13, 2006

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Inside the Google Empire

Our search into the inner workings of the Internet-service giant Google turned up enthusiasm for the brilliance behind its simplicity and success and for its "don't be evil" mantra. But disillusion has already struck for those who think Google trashed that tenet by censoring its way into China's cyberspace

I very much enjoyed your article on the Google empire [Feb. 20]. But did TIME's reporters walk out of the Googleplex, the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., really understanding why Google is so successful? Google's triumph lies in its enormous user base. Growing that base to infinity plus one is far more important than ad revenues. Once you have the most wanted product in the universe, you have a googol (1 followed by 100 zeros) possible ways to make money.

JOHN SKELLY Mons, France

Despite Google's refusal to turn over data on people's Internet use to U.S. prosecutors, the company is actually betraying its customers' trust by retaining information on every search and resultant Web-page retrieval. If phone companies logged the content of everybody's phone calls, consumers would be outraged. Perhaps Google's respecting the privacy of its customers is not congruent with the goal of Internet domination.

ED R. BAUMAN Santa Monica, Calif.

I trust Google to protect my privacy a whole lot more than I do the occupant of the White House and the corporate chieftains he takes his orders from.

CHRIS GODWIN Delaware City, Del.

Google is young, small and agile enough to create a unique culture of Web-use creativity that feeds its bottom line. I was impressed to learn that each Google employee is supposed to devote 10% of his or her time to exploring far-out ideas. I also like the company's emphasis on developing technology first and finding an economically viable business model second. Google could apply those values by entering the spam wars. If it develops an antispam tool that defeats e-mail evildoers, Google will continue growing while furthering its philosophy.

KEVIN A. KEANE Lafayette, N.J.

Google's censored Chinese website raises a question: Does Google value profits over providing the best service to Chinese consumers? In China, Google's real customer is the government, not the people. Google should make full disclosure to the Chinese people of its compromised goods.

HOMER E. MYERS Vancouver, Wash.

It hardly matters that when people in China Google Tiananmen, the results do not include photos of rows of tanks. Google's different versions reflect the thinking of different people. In China, people prefer to look forward. But in the West, people like to look back. The Western media are full of stories about massacres, genocide and dictatorships in remote countries that most Western readers are barely aware of. China's Tiananmen Square is such a great place, the entrance to the magnificent Forbidden City. Why do Westerners prefer to see the tanks on the street?

FENG WANG Brussels

Calling for Cooler Heads