Forum Moderators: martinibuster
A few weeks ago I saw a man who has just written a book about Google interviewed on CNN. He spoke of an instance when he was at Google and one of the two founders walked into the room and suggested he should just put his book up on Google for free and let anyone who wants to read it.
He responded that he had taken 1+ year off his regular job to research & write the book yet his mortgage payments, grocery bills, utility bills, etc. continued during that year.
His point was how idealistic (and out of touch - my words) are the two founders.
They obviously have some adults working around there to make things work, but still, it makes for an interesting company.
FarmBoy
Google gives money every year to charity - so do alot [sic] of businesses.
The company I work for no longer supplies coffee, stopped their "rewards" program for exceptional work, and suspended their 401k match this year. No one gets a raise in pay in 2010 either and our bonus will be about half of what it was in 2009.
No holiday parties, food at meetings that run through lunch... the list goes on. I bought my own pens the other day because we didn't have any in the supply room.
This is a Fortune 100 company that is still quite profitable, but the pressure from Wall Street is tremendous.
I don't feel stiffed at all. Thanks again Google.
If you were expecting a gift from Google - you got stiffed.
I'm pretty sure the spirit of every cultural and religious gift-related tradition that takes place in December is about giving gifts, not expecting them.
It's hard to get bent out of shape about the approach they took this year. Even if they would have donated that $20 million anyway, at least they didn't blow another $20 million on logo'd schwag* and postage.
Many companies who donate will spend 10x more than the donation on TV ads talking about their donation. Sending out an email and putting up a single simple web page costs them practically nothing... so I'd say they did a good job with that, too.
My only area of improvement would have been to give each of us the choice of which of those listed charities got our share of the donation.
*I mean, yes, all this Google stuff on my desk looks cool and gives me a +5 bonus to my Internet Savviness Boasting ability. But ultimately it's just more stuff I have to dust every year.
Google's announcement about making a donation was not the first such note I've received this season. It seems to be a growing trend for companies to make charitable donations in lieu of handing out promotional gifts, and on many levels that's probably a good thing.
In reference to the percentage reportedly given to charity, let's not get judgemental because there's no way we can know the whole story here. FWIW, some companies believe in making zero charitable donations at the corporate level, believing that it's preferable to maximize the paychecks of employees, shareholders, partners, etc so they can make their own individual decisions about what to support.
As with so many things, there's more than one way to look at it ...
suggested he should just put his book up on Google for free and let anyone who wants to read it.
Call me crazy, but based on my adsense earnings I certainly have made more by doing exactly that :)
Again, thank you google ... happy holidays!
In any event, even if you're low-class enough to turn a charitable donation into a three ring promotional circus, this isn't the way to do it. Smart marketing would've just given the money and kept their mouths shut. Let the charities do the talking, unsolicited. They'd get a lot more positive press, and not have people calling them crass in public.
Glad to see them helping them out.
[It's calculated? Is it possible our conversation here encouraged Google to think about what to do for the holidays?
Calculated ?..obviously ..in reaction to the information released by the sources I cited here days ago [webmasterworld.com]..
Large press coverage in the UK about their less than £6000.oo donation to charity ..compared to their near £1.6 billion profit from the UK alone.. and the coverage was prior to this belated attempt at PR ..
A hypocritical attempt at damage control is what this is ..
they gave ..after being shamed into it
.001% of their profit..
and doubtless wrote it off against tax ..if they pay tax ..anywhere
Google, one of the biggest corporations in the world, $20 million, hell, Brad Pit donated $6.8 million himself last year.
Brad can do whatever he wants with his money. Google needs to act responsibly on behalf of shareholders.
If you want to know more about Google and charities, then look for information about Google Foundation. The original pledge was $1 billion.
On a personal note, starting in mid 2007, I started donating a fixed percentage of my net income to charity. Adsense gave me the financial freedom to make that pledge to myself, and for that I'm very grateful.
This sums it up nicely:
Nothing but political pr slight-of-hand at work.
I would also add out of the $20 million only $10-$12 will actually help someone; the other $8-$10M will be wasted for 100+K salaries and bureaucracy..
On a personal note, starting in mid 2007, I started donating a fixed percentage of my net income to charity. Adsense gave me the financial freedom to make that pledge to myself, and for that I'm very grateful.
In short:
- personal donations to charity and corporate donations to charity are two completely different things, and I question the idea of random donations to charity from corporations, particularly publicly traded companies. If the lords of Google want to give to charity, sell some stock and give privately.
- issuing public statements about it smells of a pr stunt, which cheapens it. If it's not about PR, then why didn't they do it quietly? Because it IS about PR, that's why.
I don't know. Maybe when you've got that much money things are different. I'd hope that when I've got more money than my kids could possibly spend that I'll do things differently. I hope I do.
Sure, I was flattered by the first one. But that was back during my honeymoon period with Adsense. Things were exciting, fresh and new. Back then Google, Inc. was the "good guys."
Now the relationship is simply a slug match. It's me against the beast. So, I'm happy enoungh to be left out from getting my portion of the cheap chinese crap Adsense parcels out. And if my not getting a present means that Google donates even one dollar more to charity than they would have otherwise, then that's great with me.
What I really think, however, is that heaven forbid Adsense would think enough of me to treatment me as a respected business partner rather than to just try to bribe my emotions off with a few yearly trinkets.
that's about as much of an conversation killer as telling them you sell life insurance
As would "you are rich, where is my gift."
Sorry, but the manufactured title of this thread implies this...
then why didn't they do it quietly
because then they would be accused of being uncaring, of not contributing.
One of my former clients gets $10k a month in free advertising from G. It was upped to $25K since then. They are not on that list. G gives more than we know and not just in donation, it is in lost income as well.
Companies have a choice. They either do it quietly and get villified and then lose money or they do it publically and get villified b/c it is not enough... Catch 22.
They started with gifts for webmasters, but that's an old idea, press won't pick it up any more. So this year they feel like they are charitable.
Next year? Maybe they'll plant some trees in GooglePlex and will announce they "saved or created" (lol - where did I hear that last time? :) 1M cubic meters of fresh air. Here's how Google saves our planet ::
My first response was to go to WebmasterWorld.com and look for any relevant threads.
Immediately, I stumbled across this thread, read the title and.........<chuckle>
No, the issue is that they tied a yearly contribution to charity (which they have done for 10 years straight) to a vendor swag programs. This was not about charity, it was about discontinuing a program that vendors had come to look forward too.
Lets review:
- Google retracts almost every webmasters/siteowner outreach program it had in 2009.
- They left the trade show circut. Other than what they had contracted a year earlier, they eliminated their participation in trade shows.
- Left their own speakers to pay for their own way to industry conferences. (denying expense receipts).
- Eliminated AdWords account support.
- Layed off hundreds (thousands according to some reports) temp advertising support reps.
- Canceled the Google customer support party (Google dance).
- Eliminated the vendor appreciation programs for AdSense and Adwords.
Everything Google has done in the last year has screamed, "AdSense and AdWords markets are maximized or tapped out. Put it into maintenance mode and lets go see where else we can make money."
And so 2009 was about Chrome, Google Docs, Android Mobile, and now Android Desktop. Google's support and money is going into those projects and no longer into programs such as vendor appreciation programs. 2009 was the year Google came to the realization that search is no longer its future. (I must give a nod to Google that I didn't think they would have the nads to come to that conclusion - let alone start to take action on it.)
Next year?
They might announce a space flight or a moon landing in the name of all mankind.
They left the trade show circut. Other than what they had contracted a year earlier, they eliminated their participation in trade shows.
And what charitable contributions has WebmasterWorld or PubCon made this year? Did it happen quietly and you are being villified? Just wondering.
Oh wait.... I have paid for a memebership for... hmmm years and years now from here. Been to a few confrences too. Where is my gift? Wait again, not expecting one.
Sucks that they made business decisions that are bad business decisions. Regardless, it is business. That should not preclude their charity or what that means.
[edited by: hannamyluv at 4:17 am (utc) on Dec. 23, 2009]
"What charities do you donate to?"
mattcutts.com/blog/charitable-giving/
All this must have been planned months ago.. :/
Yes, we donate every year to charity. The only time we talk about it is when we do something to raise money with other webmasters (such as we did for victims of Katrina)
That is my point...
I agree, anon is best. I don't even let my kids put their names on books they donate to their own schools.
But you can not judge that this is nothing if they do not brag. And you can not knock if they do. How much is behind the scenes?
Like I said, I had a client $10K a month in free ads X 12 months and then that had been upped shortly after they left my care. They were not on that list and they were a big charity (I know a big celeb just made news for donating to them).
I am so tired of people saying that they deserve something. I am not even a Christian. But you know... Christians has something with the cinder and log thing.
Still wondering where my xmas card is from here...
Personally, I prefer not getting any landfill-bound marketing gifts. If I made laws I would outlaw any marketing gifts that weren't edible, recyclable or biodegradable.
Put it into maintenance mode
Maybe they are letting the system run as intended (to scale unlike others, erm y/m erm, for example see everything in "the list" which doesn't scale) and they are focusing their assets on new channels for the distribution of the adsense and adwords advertising networks in the future. Just my perspective. Swag doesn't scale, google dances don't scale, um remember when you could take a ikea couch home from a google dance ... and they were okay with it ... stuff like that was fun and got things going ... but it doesn't scale to the masses ... giving to charities does scale. Just my two cents, happy holidays to your family and ,um ... charities.
its just a pity that for the last 10 years they did not do the same instead of sending gifts and cards as this would of stopped the nay slayers from jumping on the band wagon with their adverse comments yet again from a company what has made 1'000s of web masters be able to better their lifestyle
Has it not occurred to members that we are experiencing the worse credit crunch for decades and most corporations are cutting back with staff, overheads expenses etc.
Businesses are ceasing trading left right and centre and your having a moan about not getting a gift or a card and then moan when they give it to a more needy cause.......
Anyway I will say it even if other members can't
Merry Christmas to all the staff at Google and thanks for everything over the last 10 years
oh and yeah I can say "Merry Christmas" cos thats what it is ;)
Google needs to act responsibly on behalf of shareholders.
LOL.
If that really was their intent, then perhaps Google CEO's Mr. Page and Mr. Brin could sell their private Boeing 767-200 jet. Think of all the carbon that produces and the expense to run that could fund a charity.
...what ever way you look at it charities need it more than all of us put together
My guess is there are more than a few publishers who are having a hard time right now. A nice gesture such as sending this month's payment early would have been a nice gift to some publishers.
And I try to exercise caution about charities these days. Some are efficient and humble. Some are very inefficient. Some have management that keeps a lot off the top for themselves.
If Google gave $20 million or $20 to charity, good for Google. But I don't get all warm and fuzzy thinking "charities" are somehow the saviour of the world.
Simplify AdWords and use $20 million efficiently to recruit new advertisers. As we publishers spend our additional income, pay taxes on it, donate it, etc., that $20 million would do more for more people in the long run than spreading this $20 million out among that list of charities one time.
FarmBoy
