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> In the Internet tech community, it's ultimate manifestation is how we pretend we do not earn our livelihoods from advertising, something most of us deep down
by hcarvalhoalves 13y ago
> In the Internet tech community, it's ultimate manifestation is how we pretend we do not earn our livelihoods from advertising, something most of us deep down know to be evil [2].
Thank you for calling out this one. I've been harshly criticized in the past for pointing out Google, which is beloved amongst geeks, is ultimately an advertising machine, and the reason they push many positive/geeky initiatives is because they have total consciousness of that ("Don't be Evil") and don't want to lose their talent pool.
- visakanv 13y agoI once started a "so, what how do YOU earn a living?" on r/hailcorporate, where people complain about blatant corporate influences. Most of them work in marketing/advertising. Myself included. It's not so black and white, of course- I do sincerely believe that I'm trying to be a force for good- and that's probably what a lot of politicians genuinely believe, too. RE: Google, I think it's totally okay to be an advertising machine if you build something like search. As long as search itself is not compromised. In which case we (speaking for the non-techies here) would still have to suck our thumbs until something better came along.