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Google sued 'for the children' in PR campaign by Long Island politico

Can you say "publicity"? Evidently, that's all Jeffrey Toback, a member of the Nassau County (Long Island) legislature knows. He's suing Google for the children, claiming that the company's search engine promotes paid ads for child pornography companies [*cough* EVIL! *cough*].

Naturally, Google says that it is not "the largest and most efficient facilitator and distributor of child pornography in th world." And that this is just a publicity stunt. What? No, not really?

Mike from Techdirt weighs in, explaining that "the law here is
extremely clear: a service provider is not directly responsible for what people do on their platform" and calling the lawsuit "ridiculous" and "a misunderstanding both of the law and how Google works." Ridiculous it may be, but Jeffrey Toback's name is on everyone's lips today. Investors evidently agree with Mike; the stock is up $1.50 in intraday trading, to $396.25.

Is Google doing evil by profiting from typos?

opb.comAs long as I've been surfing eBay, I've been in on the dirty little not-so-secret that many of you share: typos are the way to go if you want to save money. There's even a search engine devoted to it.

I'm not the only former spelling bee champ exploiting the less fortoonat. Google makes money on typos too, by selling ads that appear on sites like nyrimes.com, ebbay.com, and OPB.com. Google insists that it's in the clear legally - after all, no one is confused, thinking that "OPB.com" really is Oregon Public Broadcasting's non-profit news site when it he arrives at the ad-filled site.

Sure. We know. None of us are total, complete dolts, no matter how poor our spelling or slippery our keyboard. But what we do know is that this seems a bit underhanded. And profiting from that? Harvard researcher Ben Edelman says that seems to fly in the face of their motto: "Do no evil," in this Washington Post article [registration required].

More evidence that Google's the next evil empire. Stay tuned...

If eBay partners with Microsoft, who will be the evil empire?

With eBay rumored to be talking to Microsoft or Yahoo! about creating a partnership in order to face off the considerable threat of Google and Apple launching Microsoft software on its platform, it's almost enough to make you wonder if Bill Gates' competition-stifling company might be losing its reputation as The Evil Empire.

After all, as I discussed with my friendly neighborhood database guy in the coffee shop today: Google's whole schtick is don't be evil. But how can they not be evil if they're positioned to take over the world? Google's in everything these days, from operating systems to email to calendars. They're a search company, they're a portal, they're an online superstore, they're the last word in clean and simple software.

But someone has to be evil, right? Some company has to be the lumbering giant about whose feet tiny, nimble startups hop and nibble, and against which the up-and-coming titans war. For a decade or more now, it's been Microsoft. I don't know how I'd react to a world in which Microsoft was one of the good guys. How 'bout you?

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Last updated: November 25, 2009: 11:41 PM

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