Clearly Matt did the right thing here, but the cynic in me says that all press is Good Press ... and now Chrome is going to get lots of it for free. Mission accomplished.
Is there anything they could have done that would not have triggered the cynic in you? Don't punish -- Google is evil. Punish but leniently -- Google is applying its policies unevenly. Punish as they did -- it's all good press!
Will this really get picked up outside of tech press? While this will generate lots of chatter, it seems most of it will be visible only to people who already know about Chrome.
I think most of the reactions so far are overly cynical - it really seems like Google is trying to do the right thing here.
Regardless of what actions Google decided to take, this was going to make the news. They could either do this in a positive way by showing that they themselves are not above the law of PageRank, or they can do nothing at all and have Google Naysayers saying, "See! Their own rules don't apply to them."
This sends a strong message to the rest of the Internet: We won't stand for even the perception of impropriety when it comes to our money maker: search (well ads, but you know what I mean)
Comments
Clearly Matt did the right thing here, but the cynic in me says that all press is Good Press ... and now Chrome is going to get lots of it for free. Mission accomplished.
Is there anything they could have done that would not have triggered the cynic in you? Don't punish -- Google is evil. Punish but leniently -- Google is applying its policies unevenly. Punish as they did -- it's all good press!
Will this really get picked up outside of tech press? While this will generate lots of chatter, it seems most of it will be visible only to people who already know about Chrome.
I think most of the reactions so far are overly cynical - it really seems like Google is trying to do the right thing here.
This issue has reached Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Washington Post ... and so on http://news.google.com.au/news/more?q=chrome&hl=en&r...
Regardless of what actions Google decided to take, this was going to make the news. They could either do this in a positive way by showing that they themselves are not above the law of PageRank, or they can do nothing at all and have Google Naysayers saying, "See! Their own rules don't apply to them."
This sends a strong message to the rest of the Internet: We won't stand for even the perception of impropriety when it comes to our money maker: search (well ads, but you know what I mean)
Noone who hears about this does not already know all about Chrome, unless it reaches the mainstream press due to the extremity of the self-punishment.