Aaron Strout : Citizen Marketer |
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Google Apologizes for Chrome Snafu
I am way overdue for a blog post given the fact that my last official post was in mid-August. I have a bunch brewing but given the recent news of Google's new browser, Chrome, I couldn't resist talking about some of the fallout that Google is experiencing around their end user licensing agreement (EULA).
The reason I got headed down this path in the first place was that some of my colleagues were e-mailing about Chrome the other day and the topic of their EULA came up. During the exchange, colleague Sam Lesher, sent a link to a post on ars technica explaining what really happened. If you haven't read about it, I'll boil it down to three bullets:
- Google released their new browser and got a ton of media coverage leading to millions of downloads
- As millions started to download the new browser (which according to some is not quite ready for prime-time), people started to realize that the Chrome EULA basically said that everything that flowed through your browser was fair game for Google to own/publish.
- Google sensing a "Facebook Beacon" fiasco on the horizon, reacted quickly and did two very un-big company-like things: a) they admitted that they made a mistake (the Chrome EULA was borrowed from another product and wasn't sufficiently modified and b) they apologized for the mistake and said that they would fix it immediately. WOW!
What intrigued me about Google's quick response was the fact that coming from a company that used to live by the informal mantra of "Don't Be Evil," Google has gotten a bad rap over the last few years for becoming a little too big brother-esque. Seeing such a big company that has mostly ignored their original mantra pull a mea culpa is not only refreshing, it's the epitomy of the way companies need to start behaving. Don't get me wrong, Google still has a long way to go in terms of getting back to its roots but I do feel the need to applaud companies when they do the right thing.
What do you think? Am I letting Google off the hook to easily? Oh, and have you downloaded Chrome yet? If so, what are your initial impressions?
I also did a short podcast on Utterz on this topic.
Fri, Sep 05 2008
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Comments |
 Some of the issues brought up in this article http://www.abcnews.go.com/Business/Story?id=5727509&page=1, bring up some bigger issues, beyond simply rescinding the terms. So you may be letting them off the hook to early vs to easy.
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Thanks gang. In this particular case, Google definitely did the right thing whether they originally intended to put the EULA up they did or not. @ericagee, according to the Ars blog post, Chrome's EULA has been changed and is retroactive for anyone that already had signed up. ;) ----- Aaron | @astrout
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I'm holding off on using Chrome til the EULA is actually changed, but I do (always) appreciate a company (or anyone's) ability so sincerely admit and apologize for a mistake. I just also respect it much more when there is urgently prioritized follow-through on fixing it. - @ericagee
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I totally agree, Aaron. It's totally refreshing and HUMAN for a company to respond and apologize. Customers/users give feedback because they care enough to do so. The worst thing is for a company to ignore the feedback. Responding connects customers with the company in a very powerful way!
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