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We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly
61–70 of 888 posts
Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly
#62Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those are mostly "Software Engineers" and not a lot of them. Google can kick them out and replace within a month. Unfortunetly I dont think executives will give a slightest heck about this article..
> Google can kick them out and replace within a month. Ah. A believer that software engineers are cogs and can just be “replaced” without training and learning of code bases. Hiring software engineers, bringing them up to speed, and having them contribute to production features, is expensive. Also, you’ll never truly recoup the lost knowledge that goes.
At a size of Google, the company has to be mostly constructed out of "cogs", to be resilient. If Google couldn't handle losing ~40 (as of right now) employees, that would be something seriously strange for one of the most valuable companies on the planet.
Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly
#63If I was in China and had to choose between having a choice between censored baidu and censored google vs just censored baidu, I'd rather have both baidu and google. It's easy for us here in the western world as we have access to both and more uncensored sources to take the moral high ground and subject the Chinese to a "let them eat cake" attitude. Not sure if this will benefit people over there though to ban google…
Google can't change the laws in China. Personally, I'd rather have Google in China if I lived there. It's a great tool. People should be made aware that there's a filter and all searches are made available to the government.
Come to think of it, that's exactly what it could do by refusing to do business with them. If China is left out in the cold for long enough they may move a little.
That said, they need to be rewarded for moving or a boycott wouldn't help anything.
Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly
#64Earlier quoted context omitted.
But why do you need two censored search engines? What would be the difference between them?
Google is technically superior to baidu in many areas, specially for a developers. It gives better answers in many subjects, not just the censored ones. Besides who are we to decide for the Chinese what is best for them? Sounds a bit condescending and paternalistic. Here here, baidu is enough for you to play with, don't bother with google.
It's only condescending in a nationalist sense. I look at my own government and how well it chooses what is best for me, and I have to ask, who is the Chinese government to decide what is best for the Chinese people?
Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly
#65What am I missing? The cost of switching to an alternative search engine like Bing or Duck is next to zero. (Actually, I dropped Google for Duck just 2 months ago.) Brand is the most valuable asset Google has. Is the Chinese search market - and other evil projects - really worth the damage to Google's public image?
It's a billion users potentially, and Google only has a few billion users to begin with. Which is to say, yes, corporate greed suggests the opportunity to grow by 20-30% is absolutely worth sacrificing petty things like conscience and morals.
Business don't decide that kind of things, consumers do.
If there were clear intention from the majority of Western people to stop using every Google product the same second Google launch the censored search service in China, then Google would never do it.
Western people don't really care much? Well, they should blame themselves then, not Google.
Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly
#66Earlier quoted context omitted.
Google is already censoring specific searches all over the world, in the EU for example, the right to be forgotten and many "hate speech" laws already force google to censor many sites that are filtered out.
All the more reason to take a stand right now.
Why single out China though? If Google had to stop doing business in any country that forces it to censor stuff, they would not be allowed anywhere, I think even the US forces them to filter out illegal gambling. Where does it stop?
Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly
#67Pretty bold. A lot of people are saying this wont work, but speaking from my own experience, you'd be surprised what companies are amicable to when it comes to business. Im an engine mechanic by trade, and our shops handle bids for cash strapped local governments that outsource their motor pool maintenance. We do things like fire trucks and police cars, but we were working on a new regional idea as a "service center"…
Damn, good for y'all for sticking to your values. How did you argue against the inevitable "if we don't take this contract, dude across the street will"?
Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly
#68Pretty bold. A lot of people are saying this wont work, but speaking from my own experience, you'd be surprised what companies are amicable to when it comes to business. Im an engine mechanic by trade, and our shops handle bids for cash strapped local governments that outsource their motor pool maintenance. We do things like fire trucks and police cars, but we were working on a new regional idea as a "service center"…
Wow. Great story, thank you for sharing this.
Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly
#69They should volunteer to give up some of their generous benefits to offset the lost revenue from Dragonfly.
Re: We are Google employees – Google must drop Dragonfly
#70I say google should go for it. If they don't build it, someone else will. If a lot of people start using the tool, google will have a lot of influence to actually make change happen.