On 9/11 one of our avid readers noticed a dearth of coverage on Google, a site that will alter their logo for the most minimal anniversary, like 347 years since the invention of cottage cheese. On the same day the search engine Bing had a well done photographic tribute that noted the significance of the day. I deleted Google as my search engine that day and have been a happy Bing user ever since. If any of you are still on the fence, take a look at the dichotomy between the two sites today. And tell a few friends. The more people switch, the more this effects Google’s pocketbook.
Just another day, or a “day that will live in infamy?” You decide…
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I’ve gotten used to using Goodsearch, which throws a small donation to my favorite charity (Prison Fellowship, for me) when I do a search. I’d feel guilty to abandon it now.
But good on Bing.
you got me…I’m switching.
It’s such a small point you’re making … but in a way it speaks volumes. Good post.
Thanks, Christian. The little stuff matters. The most powerful vote we cast in America is with our eyeballs and wallets. If you want more of something, buy it, use it. If you want less, don’t use it, don’t buy it. And pass it on so others can make informed decisions.
Your industry, film, is a real indicator of how Americans vote with their dollars. Unfortunately, not buying tickets for junky films doesn’t ensure good films will be made, but it lessens the junky films that get green-lighted.
it speaks volumes? not so much, no. microsoft is not anymore in touch with “american values” than google is because they can code a jpeg for pearl harbor.
Well, I’m just cynical enough to prefer a company that fakes it rather than one who doesn’t even try.
Yes, Will.I.Am, but Google chose not to remember Pearl Harbor or 9/11 on their site, when they literally celebrate almost any anniversary on the calendar. Check it out, http://www.google.com/logos/
I’m fine that they do different logos for different users and countries. No big deal. But they are consciously choosing to NOT commemorate the two days when America was attacked by foreign combatants and thousands of Americans were killed; September 11th and December 7th.
Both sites are making jpeg’s part of their “branding.” Google is choosing to NOT associate their brand with the tragedies of September 11th and December 7th, Microsoft is. It’s small, but it means something to me so I’m not going to support Google.
Obviously you are free to choose as you wish, and it may mean nothing to you. More power to you, but don’t criticize me for caring, or choosing to search with a company that feels September 11th and December 7th are anniversaries at least as important as Comic Con or crop circles.
google is canadian,
why do all you americans expect the internet to be tailored to you?
‘Cause Al Gore invented the internet. Eesh!
Plenty of Canadians died in WWII. When Pearl brought the Americans in, nobody was more grateful than the Canadians.
They did something for Chinese New Year one year, is there a large Canadian Chinese population I’m not aware of?
Tracy… as in most West Coast cities… Vancouver has a large (and very cool — great food) China Town. I don’t know their larger political or cultural influence on canada.
Sorry Floyd, as soon as posted that I realized they probably do, and it doesn’t matter. They’re not Chinese any more than they are American, although from Rich’s comments, it would seem they are American.
Prior to Hong Kong reverting back to China A LOT of British Chinese went to Canada to establish residency. No one was quite sure how the Chinese would act when they took over the city so those who could afford to hedged their bets by setting up a second residency in a Western democracy that made it easy, Canada.
When exactly did Google become Canadian? Wasn’t it founded by two Americans (one born in Russia), and isn’t it based in California?
josh, Tracy, Floyd et al,
Google is a huge, international company, more than willing to “cater” to the Chinese and limit search results to the whims of Communist leaders, so let’s not pretend that they don’t cater to desires that fit their agenda, or net them billions of yuan.
Also, Google shows different logos to different users depending on the day, and the user’s country of origin. They do all kinds of local stuff for all kinds of nations, big and small. Do I expect Google to cater to me? No, but I will notice if they cater to Belarus (Ilya Repins’ Birthday), and fail to mention two significant anniversaries in my country.
And, not to get all conspiratorial (that’s moonman Mike’s job), but it’s an interesting coincidence both days they left off their calendar are days when the U.S. was attacked by foreign countries and thousands of innocent Americans were slaughtered. To you it might just be an oversight, but let me tell you how this works on their end. They have a team of people dedicated to the logo and they have groups of researchers investigating different dates in different countries and cultures. They decide which ones will be commemorated, and which will not, then they set people to task designing an appropriate logo. If you think there’s one guy in a cube looking at a tear-off calendar and pasting a jpeg onto a web-page you are incredibly naive. A team at Google discussed September 11th and December 7th and their significance in the U.S. and decided to punt. You might see that as a smart business decision. Why risk offending Japanese or Saudi users? Well, Microsoft took the risk. They get my eyeballs.
The corporate HQ of Google, Inc. is located in Mountain View, CA – it is indeed an American company. (Sorry Josh). There are many other offices, in different cities throughout the world, that house branch offices of Google – such as Google Detroit, Google Athens, etc, This includes three branch offices in Canada. See all Google offices here:
http://www.google.com/corporate/address.html
Facts, Richard, facts? How dare you?!?!
I know EP – this is probably why I didn’t get invited to Copenhagen.
(Still pouting about that…)
Wow. Two trolls. This thread must really get to the libtrolls. Ahh, that’s right…patriotism.
Yet more proof that Rufus is a racist.
I’ve been using BING ever since their inception. I too like their small, maybe, but still meaningful takes on days that matter to us all.
Besides all that, they have a cool translator that allows me to occasionally wow people with my expertise in written foreign language.
Außerdem haben Sie alles, einen kühlen Übersetzer, der mir gelegentlich Menschen mit meinem Fachwissen in schriftlichen Fremdsprache wow ermöglicht.
Fritz,
The translator steered you wrong on that one! I get the gist because of the English you wrote above, but show that abomination to a German without the English and you’ll get a blank look. It’s not bad up to Übersetzer, but it’s all Spracheigentuemlichkeit after that!
Ja wohl, mein herr!
And Rufus, I would have translated it into Russian, but your filter would not allow cyrillic. I knew you’d snitch me out with the German, but had no choice other than Spanish.
Stephanie’s also a German speaker, she even lived there for a bit as a student. I think Rich speaks Russian, either that or he drinks white russians, I can never keep that straight.
I lived in Germany for 3 years and found that the little bit of German I knew was of no use there. My mother’s brand of German had so much Russian intermingled with it that most Germans looked at me like I was nuts. Her forebears were all German, but lived near the Volga River in Russia, and so their language was a hodge-podge of both languages.
My German has fallen alot since I lived there. I know if I moved back and spent any time it would come back but dang its true if you don’t hear it all of the time you lose it. It didn’t take any time at all to lose it either.
Funny thing, Mrs. Firefly speaks and her and I mainly just use it as a secret language when we don’t want others to understand us. Most of our conversations revolve around children, gifts and what to do with my parents when they come to visit. We notice that we are devolving into our own dialect. Our vocabulary mainly centers on a few hundred words and our pronunciation is changing, becoming more American. I can see how a few mountain ranges and no telephones or radios could quickly result in different languages.
What Rufus said. This is no accident or oversight. Branding is a conscious decision and a company the size of Google probably has teams of people dedicated to the branding effort.
This is just one more slap in the face to our heritage.
Everybody wave goodbye to Google! Bye Google!
(I linked to this from my new tumblr.com site. I love this thing.)
Thanks for spreading the word, Jeff! Give folks the facts and let them decide.
There she is, USS Missouri, the Mighty Mo. Look on the fan tail deck. Thats where we had our wedding reception. Nice huh?
And Rufus I haven’t been using Google since 9-11 this year because of their big middle finger. Good post my man.
I used Google to search for Bing. My little act of resistance and rage against the machine.
Hopefully Bing will soon have a service like Google Reader – it’s how I keep up with Threedonia!
JS Lawlin, we have an rss feed and you can get to us from many, other aggregators. There’s one within Outlook, I use netvibes. There are hundreds. Give Google the heave ho!
That’s how google got me: the reader. I used to use Newsgator, but they got out of the free business. And when I use my iPod, I have the choice of google or Yahoo. It’s always bing or ask on the pc, though. Also, they own Youtube, don’t they?
So I’ve cut down my Google use by about 15%. Find me a better reader and it’ll be 60%.
(And Rufus, it was MEE! that posted the comparison on 9/11. Not that I need the acknowledgement or anything.)
Rufus here, Nice work -Mike!
Thanks, Rufus. That shut him up.
I do appreciate whoever it was here that brought up the fact that on the anniversary of September 11th Bing had a solemn tribute while Google had nothing. Been using Bing ever since.
That was - Mike!
Rufus, don’t you read my memos?
It’s ~Mike!~ now.
(I can teach you how to get that down to a couple of keystrokes, if you’d like.)
I’m still trying to figure out this new-fangled, toaster-thingamabob somebody gave me for the Holidays. Apparently it works wonders with sliced bread. That’s right, I hear they’re actually slicing loaves of bread now! We live in a time of miracles!
Loathe as I am to support anything MS – today has convinced me to throw Bill Gates a bone. And that would be my bone.
Wait.
What did I just say?
Gates is no choirboy but Stephen Jobs makes him look like St. Francis of Assisi. I recently finished a biography of Jobs and he’s even worse, much worse, than I thought. And it was a relative fluff piece; the author is a fan! At least Gates could do some of the stuff he made billions off of. Jobs is merely a master manipulator and exploiter. Jobs couldn’t work a TV remote, let alone design an operating system, and he treated everyone around him like dirt; even the mother of his daughter. What an egoist!