Google May Not Have the Hang Of That Whole “Don’t Be Evil” Thing Just Yet

Google loves their algorithms, and as some of us read last week, likes using automated solutions as much as possible. For those that haven’t read Douglas Edwards’s new book  I’m Feeling Lucky: The Confessions of Google Employee Number 59, the author recounts having to convince Google’s founders that yes, they should indeed have someone tasked to handle support emails, instead of letting Skynet an automated system handle it. In an interesting turn though, Google’s love of automation may have bit them on their digital butt.

As an attempt to sweep Google+ of fake names, numerous users had their accounts deactivated. Not just their Google+ accounts, mind you, but also their Gmail, Google Docs, and what-have-you. If there were ever a good cautionary tale about why you should not entrust your mission-critical data to the cloud, then this is it.

It looks cute, but wait until it turns on you.

The famous/infamous Google algorithm was looking for names that appeared fake, and some users got caught in the automated dragnet. As a guy with a Biblical first name, that makes me just a tad antsy. I also question the decision to deactivate everything. I know I go on and on about ecosystems,  but this would be kind of like a bank closing your safe deposit box, checking, and savings accounts because of an issue with a CD — they’re only tangentially related products.

Speaking of ecosystems, Google has also decided that they don’t need to promote competing sites and has chosen to remove Yelp, TripAdvisor, and other such results from Google Places. As the linked Reuters article notes, this comes on the heels of news of a Federal Investigation to see if Google “abuses its market power by favoring its own services over those of rivals in online searches and through other practices.”

Seems like Google’s writing the prosecution’s case, here.