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<p>I'll add another reminder of Google's inception to the list. It's
better to laugh at it:</p>
<p id="screen-reader-main-title" class="Head u-font-serif u-h2
u-margin-s-ver"><span class="title-text"><a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search
engine">The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search
engine</a>, Sergey Brin & Larry Page (Google's founders),
1998, in Appendix A "Advertising and Mixed Motives":</span></p>
<blockquote>
<p>we expect that advertising funded search engines will be
inherently biased towards the advertisers and away from the
needs of the consumers. [...]</p>
<p>Furthermore, advertising income often provides an incentive to
provide poor quality search results. [...] In general, it could
be argued from the consumer point of view that the better the
search engine is, the fewer advertisements will be needed for
the consumer to find what they want. This of course erodes the
advertising supported business model of the existing search
engines. However, there will always be money from advertisers
who want a customer to switch products, or have something that
is genuinely new. But we believe the issue of advertising causes
enough mixed incentives that it is crucial to have a competitive
search engine that is transparent and in the academic realm.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It's interesting to see how the explosion of the dot-com bubble
and the push for profitability from VC investors drove Google to
start doing advertising. Then, as they witnessed the potential of
their user logs, they put them to use to "improve" advertising and
earn market shares. In the meantime, they broke their prime
contract with their users.</p>
<p>I'll add a quote about the topic, from Shoshana Zuboff in "The
Age of Surveillance Capitalism", that I find hopeful:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Surveillance capitalism [Google's business model] was invented
by a specific group of human beings in a specific time and
place. It is not an inherent result of digital technology, nor
is it a necessary expression of information capitalism. It was
intentionally constructed at a moment in history, in much the
same way that the engineers and tinkerers at the Ford Motor
Company invented mass production in the Detroit of 1913.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>We could potentially find righteous business models for the
information era. It's <i>just</i> a matter of inventing them, and
allowing them to take off.<br>
I wish us luck!</p>
<p>Adrien<br>
</p>
<blockquote>
<p class="Head u-font-serif u-h2 u-margin-s-ver"><span
class="title-text"></span></p>
</blockquote>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 22/11/2019 09:00, Mark @ OC wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CC28E7FF-CF6F-4DEB-B5D6-4794535CF316@openconsent.com">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
Thanks for the Nostalgic reminder .. <br class="">
<div><br class="">
<blockquote type="cite" class="">
<div class="">On 22 Nov 2019, at 04:44, Renee Lloyd <<a
href="mailto:reneelloyd@mac.com" class=""
moz-do-not-send="true">reneelloyd@mac.com</a>> wrote:</div>
<br class="Apple-interchange-newline">
<div class="">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;
charset=UTF-8" class="">
<div dir="auto" class="">Wow. Read this and immediately
went back and read their S-1 filing when they went public
in 2004. In the letter from the founders, Larry and
Sergey write:
<div class="">
<div style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-top:
0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""><font class=""
size="1"><br class="">
</font></div>
<p style="font-family: -webkit-standard;
-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-top: 0px;
margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""><font class="" size="1"> </font></p>
<div style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-top:
0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""><font class=""
size="2" face="Times New Roman">“GOOGLERS</font></div>
<p style="font-family: -webkit-standard;
-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-top: 0px;
margin-bottom: -6px;" class=""><font class="" size="1"> </font></p>
<div style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-top:
0px; margin-bottom: 0px; text-indent: 4%;" class=""><font
class="" size="2" face="Times New Roman"><i class="">Our
employees, who have named themselves Googlers, are
everything. Google is organized around the ability
to attract and leverage the talent of exceptional
technologists and business people. We have been
lucky to recruit many creative, principled and
hard working stars. We hope to recruit many more
in the future. We will reward and treat them
well. </i></font></div>
<p style="font-family: -webkit-standard;
-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-top: 0px;
margin-bottom: -6px;" class=""><font class="" size="1"> </font></p>
<div style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-top:
0px; margin-bottom: 0px; text-indent: 4%;" class=""><font
class="" size="2" face="Times New Roman">We provide
many unusual benefits for our employees, including
meals free of charge, doctors and washing machines.
We are careful to consider the long term advantages
to the company of these benefits. Expect us to add
benefits rather than pare them down over time. We
believe it is easy to be penny wise and pound
foolish with respect to benefits that can save
employees considerable time and improve their health
and productivity. </font></div>
<p style="font-family: -webkit-standard;
-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-top: 0px;
margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""><font class="" size="1"> </font></p>
<div style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-top:
0px; margin-bottom: 0px; text-indent: 4%;" class=""><font
class="" size="2" face="Times New Roman">The
significant employee ownership of Google has made us
what we are today. Because of our employee talent,
Google is doing exciting work in nearly every area
of computer science. We are in a very competitive
industry where the quality of our product is
paramount. Talented people are attracted to Google
because we empower them to change the world; Google
has large computational resources and distribution
that enables individuals to make a difference. Our
main benefit is a workplace with important projects,
where employees can contribute and grow. We are
focused on providing an environment where talented,
hard working people are rewarded for their
contributions to Google and for making the world a
better place. “</font></div>
<div style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-top:
0px; margin-bottom: 0px; text-indent: 4%;" class=""><font
class="" size="2" face="Times New Roman"><br
class="">
</font></div>
<div style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-top:
0px; margin-bottom: 0px; text-indent: 4%;" class=""><br
class="">
</div>
<p style="font-family: -webkit-standard;
-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; margin-top: 0px;
margin-bottom: 0px;" class=""><font class="" size="1"> </font></p>
This was followed by ‘Don’t Be Evil”. </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class="">Attached link to Google S-1 in case any of
you folks want to read it. </div>
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class=""><a
href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1288776/000119312504073639/ds1.htm"
class="" moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1288776/000119312504073639/ds1.htm</a></div>
<div class=""><br class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">Sent from my iPhone</div>
<div dir="ltr" class=""><br class="">
<blockquote type="cite" class="">On Nov 21, 2019, at
11:00 PM, Yosem Companys <<a
href="mailto:ycompanys@gmail.com" class=""
moz-do-not-send="true">ycompanys@gmail.com</a>>
wrote:<br class="">
<br class="">
</blockquote>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite" class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">
<div dir="ltr" class="">As it deals with worker
accusations that it has retaliated against
organizers of a global walkout and cracked down on
dissent inside the country, Google has hired a
consulting firm with a union-busting reputation to
advise management. The New York Times reports that
IRI Consultants apparently works frequently for
hospitals and other healthcare organizations and
boasts of its “union vulnerability assessments”
and success in helping a national healthcare
company persuade employees to avoid a union
election. Google’s hiring of IRI is further
evidence of a feud between company management and
a group of activist employees that have pushed the
limits of the company’s traditionally transparent,
worker-friendly reputation. The hiring was a
surprising turn in the Silicon Valley culture
where union organization and labor unrest have
been rare because employees have been generally
well-paid and treated well. Google employees
around the world walked out last fall in protest
of the company’s handling of sexual abuse
complaints, while the free-wheeling discussion
boards that have defined Google’s culture have
increasingly turned into contentious debates over
politics or company policies.<br class="">
<div class=""><br class="">
</div>
<div class=""><a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/technology/Google-union-consultant.html"
class="" moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/20/technology/Google-union-consultant.html</a> <br
class="">
</div>
</div>
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