Google: The Monolith

by Bill Seebeck

Google, a household name. I use it everyday.  I google this and google that and get a nice result. Google is my friend.  I trust Google.  Until...

Earlier this week, I needed to speak with someone at Google.  You know like customer service. I wanted to ask them about some confusion I had about one of their online products that I use called AdSense. I had received some e-mail requesting very, very personal information for my AdSense account that those of us that are concerned about online privacy teach others never to respond to when they receive them. So, I was very confused when Google asked me for such data by e-mail. I needed to verify first that it was indeed Google that was making such inquiries and then why?

So, I went to the Google website and searched all over the place for information related to what I wanted and was unsuccessful. Then I was looking for a telephone number so I could call and ask my questions. No phone number. You could send an e-mail, but since I wouldn't give anyone the information they were requesting, I wanted to hear a human voice tell me what this was all about. All of a sudden, I realized that the Google website was designed to keep me and others away from the company.

So now, I check my BusinessWeek online, look up Google, it is after all a public company, get the local phone number, check the list of key employees, find the person in charge of products and services and give them a call.

The call goes something like this, "Hello, this is Google, how can I help you? May I have Mr. X please, says I. What is your business with Mr. X? I need to ask Mr. X about one of Google's products. If you have questions about Google products, you need to go to the website and use the e-mail. I don't want to use the e-mail, I need to speak with a person please. I'm sorry we don't do that. Well, let me speak with someone then in corporate communications. We don't have a corporate communications. Public relations then. Do you have a specific name in public relations? No. Well then I can't help you. Then, can you connect me to investor relations.  Do you have a specific name in investor relations? No. Well then, I can't help you. Listen, this is crazy, are you saying that there is no one to talk to at Google? I have a very short list of people that people can speak with but if you don't know their specific names and can't tell me what specific business you are doing with them, then I'm sorry I can't connect you."

End of conversation.

The Oxford American Dictionary defines a monolith as, "a large and impersonal political, corporate or social structure regarded as intractably indivisible and uniform." 

So, when you call Google, the monolith, it responds, "Welcome to Google. Go away".

Now I've been in the online business for 27 years and I have never experienced such behavior.

My next step took me to their most recent earnings press release and yes, I found a name of a person in corporate communications. I called but got their voice mail. I left a message and said I had two questions. First was why was Google making itself so unavailable to the public and second I needed to ask some serious questions about their product AdSense. Well, I have yet to hear from them.

I have to admit that Google is not alone in its Internet strategy. They and others use their websites to inform but also use it to block the public and as a way to control access.

Now, I am sure that Google or others that have such a strategy will say that thousands of people will call if they give out a phone number. Maybe that is true, and maybe that's good. How do you know what your marketplace is up to? What are people feeling? Are you satisfied that e-mails provide you with the true trends with which to gauge your business in the future?

Thirty years ago, my boss at the time, J. Peter Grace, ceo of W.R. Grace & Co., put out a memo to all employees (numbered in the thousands) and told us to answer our own phones. None of us, he said were too big to do that and in our humility, we might learn something about our business. He also said that some of the calls might not be pleasing, but then that was the way we took responsibility for our actions in the course of doing our work.

Now, I realize that many things have happened since those days, but what hasn't changed is that when you sell to the public, you are responsible to the public. When you think that you are better than the public you serve, then someday it comes back on you.

Take a look around Google, you can see the carnage of many companies that didn't think they needed to be responsible to the public.

What do the readers think about this?  Let us know.

Copyright 2009  WBSeebeck

Bernanke Says Recession Over End of Year! NOT!

by Bill Seebeck

It was reported yesterday that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke believes that housing is bottoming out, that the recession should come to an end by the end of 2009 and while unemployment will be slow to rebound that, things will move over to the positive side, unless of course there is a further problem with the financial system.

Well, that's a stinging endorsement of Happy Days to come if I've ever heard it.

Little or No Credit Available

Perhaps the Fed Chairman hasn't noticed that in the last 90 days the banks have seriously contracted personal and small business credit by slashing credit lines, even to the most worthy. Net, net, sir, every day that goes by, there is less and less credit in the hands of the people.

Housing on a Rebound?

Perhaps, sir, you have not noticed that while banks are playing at handling the foreclosure crisis, they are just that playing, creating an illusion. In fact, they are handling lots of requests from people in need, but they are holding up finalizing new mortgages and promote only the fact that they are processing so very many. Processing but not completing. Foreclosures continue.

Banks Rebuffing Congressional Staffs

Perhaps Mr. Chairman, you should make inquiries of Congressional staffs and find out just how successful they have been in helping their constituents with mortgage problems. You will find that the banks have not been responsive to the staffs of our elected officials, the very people who have oversight of the banks and of you, sir.

Squeezing the People

Mr. Chairman, the people are being squeezed from every corner.  Our cities and states all have budget deficits and are making serious cuts in services and trying to raise funds in every possible way, mainly on the backs of the people. People are losing their jobs each day. Self-employed folks are out of work also and the Fed doesn't count those people who never did qualify for unemployment insurance. The prices of food and services have not retreated, nor very little else, except the income of the people.

Where is all the money going to come from Mr. Bernanke to improve our economy?

Unemployment Still Rising

Unemployment is rising at a lower level but still rising at more than 600,000 per month and the government expects the national unemployment rate to hit 10% before the end of the year. I'd like to know where the new jobs are going to come from to create the income to fuel the economy and create growth because they are not being created right now.

So, Mr. Bernanke what's the story? What's the truth Mr. Bernanke?

I read the Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times every day and the whole world is in deep recession. How can this turn around Mr. Chairman in a little more than six months?

Please tell us sir, because we, the people, don't see it.

What do my fellow citizens think?  Tell us.

SAVE THE RAIN FORESTS VIDEO

NEW "SAVE THE RAINFORESTS" EFFORT LAUNCHED

Online Video Raises Awareness & A Call to Action

Launched by Prince Charles 

Features "Friends of Frogs"

by Bill Seebeck

What do Harrison Ford, Robin Williams, the Dalai Lama, Daniel Craig, Princes William and Harry have in common?  They are "Friends of Frogs" as they joined other personalities and children around the world today in the release of a new public awareness campaign directed to preserving the world's rainforests.  The effort is led by HRH Charles, the Prince of Wales as part of his effort, "to create a climate of awareness and public concern".

The center of the online campaign is a truly wonderful 90-second film (available for viewing above) that features, you guessed it, an animated frog. The frog appears alongside each of the individuals that are profiled in the film. The frog, created by Framestore, the Oscar-winning computer generated imagery (CGI) experts behind the film The Golden Compass, serves as a symbol of the rainforest.

To demonstrate their support for this effort, people around the world are asked to signup on the website, www.rainforestSOS.org.

In addition, in order to make the campaign truly interactive, a digital application enables supporters to create their very own "mash-up" of the film in which they can appear alongside the frog and other well known personalities.

In his webcast, broadcast online this morning before the showing of the film, The Prince of Wales said, "Our aim, with your help, is to build an online community to call, from the bottom up, for urgent action to protect the Rainforests, without which we will most certainly lose the battle against catastrophic climate change."

"One of the Internet's strengths, continued Prince Charles, "is that it can enable diverse communities to come together to ensure that everybody's views and actions can really be made to count.  It provides the potential to create global determination for change on a vitally important issue," he said.

His Royal Highness, Charles, Prince of Wales is the heir to the throne of England.  He has nearly all his life been a most dedicated environmentalist and a catalyst for change in the way in which we view and treat the planet.

The unique technology for this campaign was developed by Moonshine Media and appears on a website created by Blue State Digital, the company that provided the proprietary software, as well as the online engagement strategies, for President Barack Obama during the U.S. elections in 2008.