5/21/2026 at 2:51:29 PM
The don’t be evil thing was one engineer. The legend was that He was in some meeting where product managers were sounding a little evil in their presentation. He walked up to the whiteboard, wrote that on it and left.Googlers adopted that as an unofficial motto. Until at some point Google leadership didn’t like it and officially declared that it was not, and had never been an official Google motto.
And saying there was no support is a bit odd. Crittenden 5 was a building entirely peopled by hundreds of AdWords support girls. (The head of that org only wanted to hire pretty young women for some reason).
I do believe the thing about inadequate communication of requirements, crappy appeals process and business risk. But I challenge one other thing. Pretty sure it returned more than it cost. Small business, tight margins. The only reason they continue to pay is that it makes them more money than it costs. The very second that changes people stop spending.
by tim-tday