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Exactly. I don't know how Google is "bad at PR" when the company maintained a sparkling image since its inception - arguably, to this day. For common person, wh

Exactly. I don't know how Google is "bad at PR" when the company maintained a sparkling image since its inception - arguably, to this day. For common person, who doesn't know or care about lethal security work or sophisticated privacy concerns (which aren't even easy to explain to your average non-techie), Google is this high-flying company full of brilliant people who are eager to provide him with a peerless search engine, a great webmail, and many other great services "for free". All that while their primary business is advertising - not generally a well-liked industry. Their PR management is so great that most people would be shocked to realize they're even in advertising at all. The company also has a great reputation among engineers, and is among the most desirable employers not just in its field, but in the US in general, at a time of a booming job market with plenty of other great choices. I also don't know about those "UX failures". The company has several web-based services that have effectively beaten all other services, including desktop-based services in their field. Do people forget this feat was considered impossible back when Google got started? This was no easy feat - Google realized none of the browsers that existed back then was up to the task, so it launched its own browser (!) with a revolutionary new Javascript engine that was an order of magnitude faster than anything else at the time. This was an incredibly ambitious technology project, and they made it a huge success. So while Google certainly has its failures, and we can expect more of those as it keeps its unrelenting march to become one of the most powerful corporations that has ever existed, describing them as bumbling fools who always botch "human interaction" is simply false and misleading.

slededit 8y ago
They haven't really been challenged. For much of the past 20 years tech was seen as the one part of the American economy that was working. Nobody wanted to tip over the apple cart with "excessive regulation". The true test of any company is how the behave in bad times. And lets be honest even the measly bad press they now receive is a fraction of what other industries put up with. They are handling it poorly in comparison. For comparison the banking sector managed to take down the entire economy and came out of it virtually unscathed by Washington. That is successful PR and lobbying.
- dunpeal 8y ago
  > For comparison the banking sector managed to take down the entire economy and came out of it virtually unscathed by Washington. "Unscathed by Washington"? Sure. With a squeaky clean image...? Not so much. There was Occupy Wallstreet, demonstrations all over the country, and for the vast majority of people, the image of the banking industry has been tarnished. Also, even though no banker went to jail for fraud, they did get more regulated, and their business suffered from government-imposed restrictions (which they are working very hard to undo).
  - dagw 8y ago
    There was Occupy Wallstreet With emphasis on "was". People where angry for a while, the government let them vent and then everybody went back to their normal lives and government gave the rich a massive tax cut and slowly started to loosen banking restrictions.
    - dunpeal 8y ago
      I don't know what people you know, but the folks I know in the US aren't particularly happy about banks. Occupy Wallstreet had a huge, lasting impact on the way much of the population views the banking and finance industry. > government gave the rich a massive tax cut and slowly started to loosen banking restrictions. The tax cuts are not specifically for the banking or finance industry.
      - slededit 8y ago
        They don't want to be liked, they just want to be rich. People have hated bankers since they were invented. Google however is failing horribly at the "getting rich" part. Sure they are successful, but the EU is taking a massive chunk of their business with GDPR. California is trying to impose similar measures, and if they keep this up others will follow. The hammer of regulation will dampen their profits.

slededit 8y ago

They haven't really been challenged. For much of the past 20 years tech was seen as the one part of the American economy that was working. Nobody wanted to tip over the apple cart with "excessive regulation". The true test of any company is how the behave in bad times. And lets be honest even the measly bad press they now receive is a fraction of what other industries put up with. They are handling it poorly in comparison. For comparison the banking sector managed to take down the entire economy and came out of it virtually unscathed by Washington. That is successful PR and lobbying.

dunpeal 8y ago
> For comparison the banking sector managed to take down the entire economy and came out of it virtually unscathed by Washington. "Unscathed by Washington"? Sure. With a squeaky clean image...? Not so much. There was Occupy Wallstreet, demonstrations all over the country, and for the vast majority of people, the image of the banking industry has been tarnished. Also, even though no banker went to jail for fraud, they did get more regulated, and their business suffered from government-imposed restrictions (which they are working very hard to undo).
- dagw 8y ago
  There was Occupy Wallstreet With emphasis on "was". People where angry for a while, the government let them vent and then everybody went back to their normal lives and government gave the rich a massive tax cut and slowly started to loosen banking restrictions.
  - dunpeal 8y ago
    I don't know what people you know, but the folks I know in the US aren't particularly happy about banks. Occupy Wallstreet had a huge, lasting impact on the way much of the population views the banking and finance industry. > government gave the rich a massive tax cut and slowly started to loosen banking restrictions. The tax cuts are not specifically for the banking or finance industry.
    - slededit 8y ago
      They don't want to be liked, they just want to be rich. People have hated bankers since they were invented. Google however is failing horribly at the "getting rich" part. Sure they are successful, but the EU is taking a massive chunk of their business with GDPR. California is trying to impose similar measures, and if they keep this up others will follow. The hammer of regulation will dampen their profits.