Is Google Arrogant Or Humble?

"Why is Google so condescending?" asked "Userologist" Mike Elgan in a recent IT World blog post .

At the unveiling of Google Instant last week, Google's director of Global Communications and Public Affairs Gabriel Stricker was "incredibly condescending to the audience," Elgan wrote.

Elgan explains,

[Stricker] said that the reason Google holds events like this one was that "we hear from a lot of you that with the kind of breakneck pace of innovation that we go through at Google, it's nice for us to kind of let you catch your breath." He went on to tell the audience that they would "hear from our Search rocket scientists in a second who will hold your hand through the latest and greatest of what we're up to."

Elgan also accused Google CEO Eric Schmidt of "often [coming] across as arrogant and condescending," specifically, when Schmidt suggested, "if you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."

Although many commenters agreed with Elgan's post, TechCrunch's Michael Arrington took issue with Elgan's assertions.

"I just don't see it," Arrington responded in a blog post titled "Google Arrogance? I've Never Seen Them So Humble." "Google is far less arrogant than they were even a few years ago. And even I, possibly the most sensitive and defensive person you'll ever meet, don't see Elgan's examples as condescending in any way."

Arrington argues Google has been humbled by its clashes with China, the "droves of engineers leaving for Facebook and Twitter," and its fear that in the upcoming decade, it "may not be the center of attention on the Internet." Which company really is arrogant? Facebook, Arrington says.

What do you think? What's the most arrogant tech company today? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

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Comments

[thewho77]

11:38 PM on 09/25/2010

Eric Schmidt is actually more unpicturesque than Bill Gates. This guy has a wife? Come on

[billyzazen]

01:22 AM on 09/15/2010

Evil....

[RGwell]

01:27 PM on 09/14/2010

Boycott Google. Use other search engines, don't buy products and services associated with Google. If enough of us do this, Google's attitude will have to change if they want stay dominant. WE made Google, not the other way around, and we can BREAK them.

[LCLA]

12:01 PM on 09/14/2010

Schmidt suggested, "if you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place."

Does Schmidt want us to know the intimate details of his finances or his sex life? Probably not.

[thewho77]

11:39 PM on 09/25/2010

The unpicturesque Schmidt has a sex life? With a human being and not a blow-up doll?

[Sabum]

11:59 AM on 09/14/2010

you done gone and f'd up Schmidt.

[Numberwang]

08:42 AM on 09/14/2010

How about we stop anthropomorphizing inanimate objects like businesses. CEO s may be arrogant, or humble, but the "company" certainly is not. This human drive to turn everything in our lives into a "teddy bear" is dangerous. Is this where the idea of corporate personhood originated?

[Idleinsight]

09:36 AM on 09/14/2010

Companies are run by people and as such they reflect the intent of leadership. If companies are not anthropomorphized, how could we expect that the entity be held accountable for its actions?

[norkas]

08:34 AM on 09/14/2010

Someone is now designing a search engine that will shock Goggle. It will have every element of privacy you may want and will not track you like an animal when you use their E - mail products.

Goggle has done a great job and many despise them because of their justified personal reasons and a new search engine is on the way

[thewho77]

11:41 PM on 09/25/2010

Wolfram Alpha

[Clevelandinwi]

08:20 AM on 09/14/2010

I choose 'arrogance'.

[imak]

11:30 AM on 09/14/2010

is it not human nature to speak dogmatically of things we own and are proud of. Doesn't every parent pontificate on their childs baking soda volcano time and time again...

[Davest]

11:25 PM on 09/13/2010

Tiered internet access my butt.

[LittleMittens]

11:11 PM on 09/13/2010

Arrogant

[paulbenjouse]

10:34 PM on 09/13/2010

Their hubris overwhelms.
Paul Benjou
www.MyOpenKimono.com

[curiousasheck]

10:09 PM on 09/13/2010

Why do they even put Schmidt in the limelight. He's a total buffoon as an entertainer hire an actor or something Schmidt should stay in the office.

[MyTake]

08:15 PM on 09/13/2010

""Why is Google so condescending?"

Well, when Herr Schmidt holds membership in the most "elitist" organization on Earth: The Bilderberg Group, this is the answer to that question.

I suspect, right now, that all Google search data is fed directly into the NSA data farms where the global population database is being assembled.

After a 50 year lapse, the 1000 year Reich is being revived.

[pavlicko]

04:08 PM on 09/14/2010

So Schmidt is a member of the Build a Bear group? That doesn't sound so threatening after all.

Google is like that abusive partner that you keep going back to because he's nice 'most of the time'. The rest of the time, however....

[KarateKid]

04:51 PM on 09/13/2010

Humble? Schmidt doesn't know the meaning of the term, only that it's a town in Texas.

[LazyLearner]

03:15 PM on 09/13/2010

The guy that suggests to change my name because he is too lazy or too power-hungry to add a few lines of codes that allows to delete stuff...

is plain Evil