Last week I asked whether as an investor, a shareholder, you care about companies' business practices. I didn't get the feeling this was really a major concern to most shareholders, so let me ask a more specific question: As a Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) shareholder, would you care that Google serves ads on Orkut groups that are affiliated (at least in ideology) to terrorists group?

Last week this issue was buzzing all over the Internet, and Loren Baker of Search Engine Journal wrote a particularly interesting post about the subject. Baker posted several screen shots from the Al Qaida and JihadNet Orkut groups to name a few. Their ads can be clearly seen at the bottom of the page. Some of the advertisers include companies like eBay Inc. (NASDAQ:EBAY), AbeBooks, Harvard, BuildASign.com, Stanford and Caravan.com. (I wonder if they know where their ads are being placed).

I've checked for myself, despite my aversion, and actually went to these sites (where lovely members post their pictures with a back-splash of swastikas and other such symbols). From what I've seen, it appears that Google has removed the ads.

This raises a few interesting questions though. Should Google post ads in these groups? Should Google allow such groups to even exist? If not, isn't that censorship? If yes, couldn't that facilitate terrorist activities? And I'll end with where I started, as an investor, do you even care about Google's practices as long as it increases shareholder value?