Google Case Analysis
Google Case Analysis |
MBA 569 | |
3/14/2013
In looking at the issue of whether or not Google’s “filter bubble” conflicts with one of their key corporate values of “don’t be evil,” it is necessary to understand why the company is filtering search results and who is meant to ultimately benefit from the practice. As part of their strategy they promised to preserve the integrity of search results and to never manipulate the rankings to give their partners an unfair advantage or let somebody “buy” a better PageRank. If the purpose of filtering results were meant to solely increase profits or give certain companies an unfair advantage it would most certainly seem to conflict with the values that Page and Brin instilled when Google was a younger company. However, I believe that while Google’s filter bubble is far from perfect, it is not evil and does not conflict with their strategy because it benefits consumers by producing relevant results which improves the service.
While nobody likes the idea of having certain information hidden when they perform a search on the internet, it is necessary so that the consumer can find the information that they actually need. If somebody were to search for a pizza restaurant in a phonebook, it would be much more useful to use a local phonebook with limited results instead of a phonebook that covered all of the United States, where 99% of the information was inappropriate. Some people feel hiding the irrelevant results is wrong because they are accustomed to using the internet to discover global information and expect it to be unbiased no matter what your personal interests are or where your physical location is. However, the internet has evolved from having a few thousand active websites to over half a billion, meaning if results were not filtered based on some criteria all of that information would be useless because it would be impossible to find relevant sources or the data that you expect.
An employee performing a
MBA 569 | |
3/14/2013
In looking at the issue of whether or not Google’s “filter bubble” conflicts with one of their key corporate values of “don’t be evil,” it is necessary to understand why the company is filtering search results and who is meant to ultimately benefit from the practice. As part of their strategy they promised to preserve the integrity of search results and to never manipulate the rankings to give their partners an unfair advantage or let somebody “buy” a better PageRank. If the purpose of filtering results were meant to solely increase profits or give certain companies an unfair advantage it would most certainly seem to conflict with the values that Page and Brin instilled when Google was a younger company. However, I believe that while Google’s filter bubble is far from perfect, it is not evil and does not conflict with their strategy because it benefits consumers by producing relevant results which improves the service.
While nobody likes the idea of having certain information hidden when they perform a search on the internet, it is necessary so that the consumer can find the information that they actually need. If somebody were to search for a pizza restaurant in a phonebook, it would be much more useful to use a local phonebook with limited results instead of a phonebook that covered all of the United States, where 99% of the information was inappropriate. Some people feel hiding the irrelevant results is wrong because they are accustomed to using the internet to discover global information and expect it to be unbiased no matter what your personal interests are or where your physical location is. However, the internet has evolved from having a few thousand active websites to over half a billion, meaning if results were not filtered based on some criteria all of that information would be useless because it would be impossible to find relevant sources or the data that you expect.
An employee performing a