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Comment by ralfd | Hacker News Reader

I am puzzled by this "Don't be evil" bullshit.

How would be "killing HTC Sense" not evil? How is Google not evil in requiring real names for G+ and banning people with pseudonyms? How is shutting down APIs (like translation) which developers have grown to depend on not evil? How is monetizing their search monopoly to undercut the business of other companies not evil? Or shaping with their mystical page rank the fates of a whole economy?

And on the other side: What is Microsoft particularly doing today that they are seen as "evil"?

I have a ton of respect for Google, but companies are neither persons which act moral nor are they nations for which you pledge allegiance. You get no real life karma points for defending them delusionally in Internet flamewars.

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You seem to have a very low bar for "evil". I don't see how most of those things (e.g. naming policies, shutting down or charging for free services that turn out to be too much of a burden, being popular enough that their algorithm is important to many business models) are even moral concerns. They might be stupid acts on Google's part, or very inconvenient for some people, but evil is a different kind of thing. You can't just expect others to live up to your own idiosyncratic idea of evil.

What made Microsoft evil: They used to go into acquisition talks with small companies without planning to buy them. They'd learn about their technology and duplicate it themselves.

Another example of evil is cell phone carriers giving users high internet speeds but putting ridiculous caps on them. Or Apple banning apps from the app store then copying their functionality into their own software.

I don't know if Google has done or does anything like that, and that is why people tend to think they're 'better' than other companies.

Therefore by evil what is meant is the company using slimy underhanded tactics on competitors or customers (such companies usually use them on both). Maybe it can be expressed in one word: Cheating. Does the company cheat customers, partners, etc?

Shutting down the translation API wasn't an evil act, it was being used by content farms to steal content from other publishers and get advertising from it.

Having a privacy policy which requires your real name isn't evil. You are not being forced to opt-in.

Is monetizing your core product really evil..? I didn't expect to read an anti-business comment on a site such as this...

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