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Wow. I know so little about the internal workings of Google and had such a good impression of them until today. The Wave post and now this -- not the post which was constructive and insightful, no company is perfect and it's important to examine flaws -- but for the decision to pull the post. Shameful. Steve is only wrong with one point: Google's reputation for arrogance seems actually well-deserved.

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Well, the google PR people actually didn't do anything to tell him to withdraw the post, so that is his own decision.

This is one of the very few times I've seen Steve back-off of a provocative statement; whatever made that happen does not bode well for Google and I think my point stands.

It may have been a case of not wanting to embarrass his former employer, Amazon.

That absolutely could be. I shouldn't judge. Apologies.

I don't get the impression that he was "forced" to back off, but rather that he accidentally posted something that was meant for internal consumption in public. I think it's perfectly within his rights to delete the post - most people don't talk the same way with their co-workers as they do in public, and it's perfectly understandable.

I completely get that now, and I retract my comments. I'm sorry if I cast any undue aspersions.

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