Third Half Of Your Battery?

Google’s done it again.  They’re in trouble for toeing the “creepy line”, and want to improve their image.  So, what do they do but extend their field of influence yet again?  Now they’re building a 350 mile power line that’s expected to carry electricity from Atlantic wind farms to nearly two million homes.  All well and good.

But the very thing that people have been worrying about is that Google is getting hold of too much of their lives.  Their CEO recently said that the company should be “the third half of your brain”, but apparently they now want to be the third half of your battery as well.

Honestly, I’ve got no problem with them making money.  But it seems to me that when your company is under fire for taking over too much, the best way to solve things isn’t to try garnering points by doing something PC in a new field of business (that’s more expansion).  Instead, you should clean up your act in the area people are complaining about.

Sure, they’re only funding the start of the project, but how’s that actually different as an effort to improve the way the company’s perceived?  They may be enjoying a little better perception at the moment, but this doesn’t do anything but deflect the ire that’s been directed toward them for the past several months and will probably end up increasing it if they decide to pursue the project after their initial investment runs out.

Google’s been making a lot of enemies both in public and private lately because of their ability and clear willingness to go too far in their quest to provide information to people using their sites.  Expanding things so that they’re also providing those people with electricity isn’t going to help with that in the long run, if it even does in the short run.  And, if you’re watching the “creepy line” so you can toe up to it, you’ve crossed it several yards back.