From Sergey Brin’s Blog:
As an Internet company, Google is an active participant in policy debates surrounding information access, technology and energy. Because our company has a great diversity of people and opinions — Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and liberals, all religions and no religion, straight and gay — we do not generally take a position on issues outside of our field, especially not social issues. So when Proposition 8 appeared on the California ballot, it was an unlikely question for Google to take an official company position on.
However, while there are many objections to this proposition — further government encroachment on personal lives, ambiguously written text — it is the chilling and discriminatory effect of the proposition on many of our employees that brings Google to publicly oppose Proposition 8. While we respect the strongly-held beliefs that people have on both sides of this argument, we see this fundamentally as an issue of equality. We hope that California voters will vote no on Proposition 8 — we should not eliminate anyone’s fundamental rights, whatever their sexuality, to marry the person they love.
Has Google righted itself and recovered from the daycare debacle with this one? I think so.
You can read more about Google’s historic statement here: Google opposes anti-gay marriage measure | News – Digital Media – CNET News.
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AND that’s why I bought a G1. Google works hard to not be evil, and generally corrects itself when it makes a mistake. Of course, they may be saving up a lot of customer and shareholder goodwill for some GIANT EVIL to come, currently in construction under a volcano island in the South Pacific.
i like companies that don’t try to be impersonal and apolitical. the mess in washington and wall street is the perfect example of how soul-lessness in business leads to disaster.
Good for them.
I still wish I had bought stock way back when I first heard of it while it was still virtually unknown.
i love google.
Three cheers for Google!
@FrannyO Google is what Wal-Mart should be.
@Cols Companies who get in the mix are the best ones to work for!
@RachL I don’t think there was ever a time when I was in a position to own Google stock. I don’t roll like that.
@bentcrude Thanks for commenting!
@hrwench hip hip hooray!
People like it when companies play political on issues they agree with and don’t like it when they play political on issues they disagree with it. Same thing with celebrities. I don’t think there is anything “historic” about this unless you are just referring to “Google history” which then, I would agree with you. Companies (and their executives) will continue to take stands on politics. They have in the past and they will in the future.
People like it when companies play political on issues they agree with and don
It seems like public companies should warn their investors before they start weighing in on social/culture-war issues (using their investors’ resources). Tax issues I can see. Regulation, sure. Gay marriage? Not in the mission statement.