Life with Google

Life with Google

Many of you may remember my blog post discussing why I am glad for companies like Google, Apple, Toyota, and Nintendo.  There is something called the "halo effect".  This is where an item is so good that it is used to raise the prestige of the other objects that the company is trying to sell.  It is a good marketing technique and usually works pretty well.  But sometimes a company's ethic goes beyond an halo effect.

Apple computers are often considered top notch only because of the tremendous appeal of the iPod.  However, an Apple computer more than pays for itself.  A prime example of this is longevity.  Apple customers are not loyal to Apple because of the iPod or because of better marketing.  It may lead them to buy their first Apple computer, but it is far from the reason why they are loyal.  They are loyal to Apple because they feel like Apple is loyal to them.

However, some companies seem to go far beyond this.  The ethos of the people at the top want to push the boundaries of what can be done.  There are companies that seem to break even these rules.  They go farther and desire to do bigger and bigger things.  Google seems to be such a corporation.

While visiting friends, I installed a copy of Google Chrome on their computer.  The speed at which it ran far exceeded the speeds of the Internet Explorer.  The point I am trying to make here is that we hope and desire for companies and people to do things they love for the sake of what they love.  However we usually put in our time at jobs, but live secret lives outside of work.  We escape into other people's fantasies about what our lives should be with movies and television, and yes, even books.  However, what if we lived our lives for the sheer joy of living them?  What if we pushed the envelopes of human understanding?

Thus it is good to have companies like Google who could rest on their laurels (like Microsoft) but instead choose to innovate and make things work better.  It is ironic that the companies that succeed the most in capitalism are usually the companies where the profit is only a part of their understanding of what it means to be a business.  If this is so, than the holistic approach to making money is bar far better than the more libertarian form.  To not do evil, the motto of Google, not only produces an halo around Google, but it produces innovation and thus wealth.

It is good to return again and again to the things that deserve encouraging.  While I disagree with Google's China stance, I am quite happy to report that I use blogger and typed this document on Google Docs.  I find their web browser to be quite good and I use their search engine constantly.  Such innovation deserves public kudos and I am glad to support their ethos.