Herald Sun Leaks Logies 2012 Results & Blames Google

Not sure how to fix your tech problem? Blame Google!

The search giant is fast becoming the scapegoat of choice for tech-tards everywhere, most recently for the Herald Sun, who on Sunday night revealed Hamish Blake had won the Gold Logie before it had actually happened.

I know what you’re thinking and no, Murdoch’s empire has not discovered time travel yet. Although if someone did, it would probably be him.

Instead the Herald Sun was given the Logies’ results by event organisers hours before the awards were handed out under a midnight embargo, meaning they were contractually bound by a non disclosure agreement to delay reporting on the results until midnight.

The Herald Sun wrote their article ahead of time and didn’t bother to block Google’s robot from the article’s iPad variant, meaning the article leaked long before the embargo was lifted. The Herald Sun went into damage control the following morning by blaming Google for the error, which to anyone who knows a thing or two about search engines is a very weak argument.

It’s almost as if Google can’t catch a break these days. They’re like the younger brother who gets blamed by their older siblings every time something goes wrong. Let’s take a look at some of Google’s guilty older brothers like the Herald Sun.

The ACCC, Trading Post & Telstra vs Google

Just earlier this month Google was found by the ACCC to have misled consumers by displaying ads in which the Trading Post posed as competitors. The Telstra-owned Trading Post was discovered bidding on competitor branded keywords and masquerading as their competition, deceiving searchers who clicked on the ads and were directed to Trading Post’s website instead.

After initially clearing Google of any misconduct last September due to the fact that Google “merely communicated what Trading Post representing without adopting or endorsing any of it”, the ACCC won a ridiculous appeal earlier this month that shares the blame with Google as well as the offending parties.

Blaming Google for the deceptive conduct of advertisers is like blaming your phone provider for getting calls from telemarketers. Just as Google told ZDNet Australia at the time of the appeal: “Google AdWords is an ads hosting platform, and we believe that advertisers should be responsible for the ads they create on the AdWords platform.”

Rupert Murdoch & Fox vs Google

Rupert Murdoch took to Twitter in January and vented about Google’s lax effort to curb piracy after being shown a Google TV model that could search and stream illegal content with ease.

Blaming Google for piracy is like accusing Australia Post of being drug runners. The blame for piracy resides with users and content creators. Not Google. Making piracy more difficult is not the same thing as making buying your content easier Mr Murdoch. Could Google be doing a better job at actively removing piracy? Probably. Should they? Probably not.

This isn’t the first time Murdoch’s taken swipes at Google though. Remember this video blog on last year?

Rick Santorum vs Google

Even politicians have had their run ins with Google in recent times. US Republican Senator Rick Santorum campaigned for Google to manually adjust results for his name, claiming that the search giant were engaging in defamation by not removing an offensive site named SpreadingSantorum.com from its search results.

In reality it was Santorum’s inflammatory and offensive remarks in the first place that earned him the name and unwanted attention. After hearing Santorum compare homosexuality with pedophilia and beastiality in an interview, New York Times journalist and gay activist Dan Savage set up a campaign on SpreadingSantorum.com which aimed to redefine Santorum’s name as unfavorably as possible.

When Santorum announced he was running as a candidate for the Republican nomination in the 2012 US Presidential Election, the problem spiraled out of control, leading to Santorum pointing the finger at Google.

It just so happens that Spreading Santorum had interesting & relevant content, a slew of links from major media outlets and were not breaking any rules such as ‘Google Bombing’ for the term. When compared with Santorum’s sparse and empty official website at the time, it’s no wonder Spreading Santorum became the favorable result for Google’s results.

Google refused to remove the content and Santorum was forced to actually spend time on his online properties to minimize the effect of Savage’s campaign. SpreadingSantorum.com still ranks on the first page for a slew of Rick Santorum related searches.

That’s it for this week guys!

Can you remember any other times Google’s been on the receiving end of undue blame? Let us know in the comments below!

Jim

Jim’s been here for a while, you know who he is.