When does a company stumble into being bad?
July 15th, 2008 • Internet, Search
I loved the later Star Wars films. OK, so they took a pounding from critics, and in truth represented a massive victory for graphic trickery over subtle scriptwriting. But they did hammer home one message: most things stray into being bad. The Empire didn’t suddenly yank off its Smiley Face mask, revealing the grotesque evil beneath. It just kind of stumbled into nasty - a person here, a decision there.
Made me think of a very well known internet company. It has no intention to become bad. In fact, its mantra is to Be Good. But a person here, a decision there…
One example: The Company, which operates in the search market, decided to pop its own in-site search box into its results (try this). Probably saw it as a useful additional service to its users: we’re known for search, and many sites use shonky off-the-shelf search engines, so we’ll give ‘em a hand. How were we to know that many commercial sites sell adverts against those in-site searches?
Then The Company began discussing the notion of penalising sites that advertise with it for having ‘heavy’ landing pages. The aim is to improve the user experience: why should you have to wait 30 seconds for a page to load? One way of lightening those pages, of course, is to carry fewer ads. But The Company would never have made that connection in a million years.
A person here, a decision there…
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