3 ms·

Matt Cutts was one of the Google search OGs. The kind of cultural values (e.g. make user happy all else will follow) he and a number of other original Google e

Matt Cutts was one of the Google search OGs. The kind of cultural values (e.g. make user happy all else will follow) he and a number of other original Google employees believed in and tried to defend have loooong been overridden by the Sundars and other Prabakhars who only kowtowed to the short-term demands of wall street. Cutts, Ben Gomes and similar-minded do-gooders have all neatly been benched a long time ago.

cmrdporcupine 2y ago
Yeah when I was there (2011-2021) you could just see the positioning from "slightly hypocritical, probably naive, but overall in favour of the user and classic 1990s Internet principles" to... what it is now... shifting in a slow inevitable and painful wave. The last 5 years I was there especially.
pimlottc 2y ago
He also went on to serve as the second administrator for the United States Digital Service, which has just recently been hijacked and gutted by DOGE. Sadly it’s not just the cultural values of Google that have shifted since then.
coliveira 2y ago
The Google founders were never out there to do any good. They started hijacking web content, with the excuse that it was a scientific project in Stanford, then right away converted that into a for profit corporation (similar to what OpenAI did). Next they planned to do the same with books, before they were stoped by a tsunami of lawsuits.
- ludicrousdispla 2y ago
  they aspire to "don't be evil" which isn't exactly the same as "do be good"
dang 2y ago
...but still helps people on HN occasionally! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42918310 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42918310
KennyBlanken 2y ago
I'm sorry, but please stop pretending that a company which came about thanks to a DARPA grant and then received seed funding from the investment company used by the US intelligence agencies to fund projects they like, had noble intentions at any point in time.
tptacek 2y ago
"Prabakhars"?
- ur-whale 2y ago
  > Prabakhars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prabhakar_Raghavan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prabhakar_Raghavan also: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/ https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/ And you are correct, there's just one. The additional 's' was meant to mean "and others very much like him".
- ycombinatrix 2y ago
  bean counters like Prabakhar Raghavan

cmrdporcupine 2y ago

Yeah when I was there (2011-2021) you could just see the positioning from "slightly hypocritical, probably naive, but overall in favour of the user and classic 1990s Internet principles" to... what it is now... shifting in a slow inevitable and painful wave. The last 5 years I was there especially.

pimlottc 2y ago

He also went on to serve as the second administrator for the United States Digital Service, which has just recently been hijacked and gutted by DOGE. Sadly it’s not just the cultural values of Google that have shifted since then.

coliveira 2y ago

The Google founders were never out there to do any good. They started hijacking web content, with the excuse that it was a scientific project in Stanford, then right away converted that into a for profit corporation (similar to what OpenAI did). Next they planned to do the same with books, before they were stoped by a tsunami of lawsuits.

ludicrousdispla 2y ago
they aspire to "don't be evil" which isn't exactly the same as "do be good"

dang 2y ago

...but still helps people on HN occasionally! https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42918310 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42918310

KennyBlanken 2y ago

I'm sorry, but please stop pretending that a company which came about thanks to a DARPA grant and then received seed funding from the investment company used by the US intelligence agencies to fund projects they like, had noble intentions at any point in time.

tptacek 2y ago

"Prabakhars"?

ur-whale 2y ago
> Prabakhars https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prabhakar_Raghavan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prabhakar_Raghavan also: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/ https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men-who-killed-google/ And you are correct, there's just one. The additional 's' was meant to mean "and others very much like him".
ycombinatrix 2y ago
bean counters like Prabakhar Raghavan