The Google founders like to compare Google to a "
well run newspaper." They enforce a strict separation between content and paid advertising to prevent commercial interests from distorting or biasing the information users depend on. This practice, while losing Google some revenue in the early days, is a big reason why they're now
trusted and
used more than the competition. You could argue that Google's values (coupled with ingenious engineers) are a major factor in the company's $80 billion market value.
Unlike a well run newspaper, though, Google does not recognize its own errors and omissions very well. While reputable journalists acknowledge their
errata and memorialize them in a special section, Google flushes their errors down the
memory hole.
I've accidentally come across a couple examples recently (
one and
two) where Google made a meaningful change to a post on the
Google Blog and didn't acknowledge the change or didn't identify what was changed. I've argued that while these may be trivial examples, if Google wants us to
trust them to organize the world's information, they should take a leadership position in setting the standards for reporting changes on the web.
Brad Hill sets a good example in his
Unofficial Google Weblog. Brad changed
this post to correct an error, and provides a simple and direct explanation of the change. Brad could have just edited the original, kept the same timestamp and permalink, and flushed the original down the memory hole -- as if it never existed. But Brad memorialized the change and enhanced his own reputation for honest reporting as a result.
Google should take note.
