Against The Google Doodle

January 19, 2014 in Daily Bulletin

Every day Google updates its front page with a new take on its logo commemorating significant dates or individuals. The bastards. So writes Justin Moyer:

  • We’d criticize McDonald’s and Coca-Cola if they used images of Martin Luther King Jr. or Mahatma Gandhi to sell their product.
  • Yet Google does the same and gets platitudes for it.
  • The company now decides who is and isn’t worthy of recognition. This used to be a role reserved for the creators of stamps.
  • Yet in contrast to the stamp commemoration process which includes a Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee, Google’s doodles are determined undemocratically by 10 technocrats.
  • There is also an element of hypocrisy. While Google celebrates African American leaders it refuses to release statistics on minority hiring.
  • Supporters argue that the doodles help bring attention to forgotten icons. After Google featured Zora Neale Hurston her 75 year old book rose to #173 on Amazon’s best seller list.

Read more about how this links to Google’s wider trend towards being evil over here.

Source: The Washington Post