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John Deere has about 66K employees and Google has about 85K. Also, the former literally makes money by altering the environment whereas the latter is generally
by fanzhang 8y ago
John Deere has about 66K employees and Google has about 85K. Also, the former literally makes money by altering the environment whereas the latter is generally web-based.
I think this is the exact point the OP is talking about: Google seems big because it's bigger by profits. Also, not unrelated, some people here and elsewhere feel more emotional about Google. So take some otherwise small-town public-interest story and push it for views.
- hueving 8y ago>Also, the former literally makes money by altering the environment whereas the latter is generally web-based. Do you think the web is some magical place outside of the environment? Google has more servers running than any other company in the world consuming significant amounts of energy.
- fanzhang 8y agoOut of all the organizations that do bad for public policy, you're going after Google. And out of all the things you can get Google for, you're going after the latent heat of their servers?
- wpietri 8y agoNobody is "going after" Google here. It was an interesting article about unintended consequences. That it involved Google made it a bit more interesting, as people are understandably curious about a company that touches most Americans daily -- for many, dozens of times a day.
- hueving 8y agoLatent heat isn't the issue. It's the environmental impact of the electricity production and manufacturing processes for all of their servers.
- wpietri 8y agoThe 10x is by market cap, which is a better measure of its economic importance.