Zawodny: Has Google Lost its Soul?

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Yahoo’s Jeremy Zawodny:

We all knew it was a matter of “when” not “if”, but it’s surprising to see that it had to happen this way. Over on Google Blogscoped, I see that Google Removes Its Help Entry on Censorship: The page which used to say: Google does not censor results for any search term. The order and content of our results are completely automated; we do not manipulate our search results by hand. We believe strongly in allowing the democracy of the web to determine the inclusion and ranking of sites in our search results.

Now simply 404s. It’s gone. Well, except for the cached copy in Google itself.

Rather than using that page to explain how and why they’ve compromised their corporate philosophy in China, they’ve removed it entirely with no e

Read the comments for a rather troubling look at Google’s censorship.

Ethanol Study

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All Things Considered:

About one out of every 40 cars and trucks in the United States can now run on a commercial mix of gasoline and ethanol, mostly made from corn. And the federal government is backing the renewable fuel industry. But does ethanol really reduce dependence on fossil fuels?

Man Behind the 747 Tells His Story

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James Wallace:

Sutter, white-haired and soon to be 85 but still razor-sharp, has finally told his life’s story, and that of the 747, in a book with aviation writer Jay Spenser.

“747: Creating the World’s First Jumbo Jet and Other Adventures from a Life in Aviation,” won’t hit book stores until May. But last week I received an advance copy from the publisher, Smithsonian Books.

via enplaned.

Google in China

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Rebecca MacKinnon:

So it has happened. Google has caved in. It has agreed to actively censor a new Chinese-language search service that will be housed on computer servers inside the PRC.

Obviously this contradicts its stated desire to make information freely available to everybody on the planet, and it contradicts its mission statement: "don’t be evil."  As Mike Langberg at the San Jose Mercury News puts it: their revised motto should now read "don’t be evil more than necessary."

Best Law Money Can Buy: Sensenbrenner & Conyers

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David Weinberger:

Ed Felten writes about his attempt to find out about the VEIL content protect technology specified in the Sensenbrenner/Conyers bill that would mandate that electronic devices plug the “analog hole.” (The analog hole is the fact that analog playback can be converted into digits. E.g., point a digital camcorder at a movie screen. Or, play a DRM’ed mp3 on your computer and use digital recording software to intercept the analog signal on its way to your speakers.

Obviously, these matters are vital to Wisconsin and Michigan constituents.

Ford’s New Way

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Peter DeLorenzo:

I sat there listening to the Ford Motor Company press conference Monday morning – as first Bill Ford, Jim Padilla and then Mark Fields outlined the “Way Forward,” confirming the elimination of up to 30,000 jobs and the closings of 14 manufacturing facilities over the next several years, while basically admitting that the company was culturally bankrupt, bureaucratically paralyzed, and woefully and relentlessly clueless about how to function in the modern automotive world – and the first thought that came to my mind is that it’s a flat-out miracle this iconic American company has managed to survive this long.

Monday morning’s presentation, designed to take us under the tent with Ford executives thinking and talking out loud for the assembled media, financial analysts and a worldwide Ford company audience, was a lurid combination of multiple mea culpas and a blatant pep rally – and the net-net of it was that it exposed Ford to be a company so far out of touch and so far removed from being a competitive force in the U.S. market that I was literally stunned at what I was hearing.

I have to agree with Peter. Reading the blowback from Ford’s Monday announcements, I, too wondered where the company is heading, and, if indeed it has been so rudderless, how has it survived?

Convert Customers into Evangelists

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Michael Krauss:

Marketing is not a do-it-to-the-customer, one-way process. The highest aim of marketing is to create products and stories about them that empower customers to sell for you. Don’t simply create loyal customers. Create customers who are enraptured with your product and sell for you. Turn customers on so they will turn others into customers.

Think of eBay conclaves where loyal users tell eBay CEO Meg Whitman how to run the company and what acquisitions to make. Hark back to 1984 and the launch of Apple’s Macintosh computer. Think of all those Mac users who tried to convert you to their form of technology.