Google has become the Great Satan of the week. The agreement to go along with the Chinese government and censor the material on its China-based servers has inflamed the Protectors of the ‘Net. The general position seems to be that in doing so, Google has caved in on its policy of “Don’t Be Evil,” and is now well down a slippery slope in the service of mammon.

Well, DUH!

Google is no longer a privately-held company. Although founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin still have a lot of input, when a company releases its initial stock offering it changes in several fundamental ways. The most noticeable one is that the officers become responsible to the people who own the stock. It is no longer the function of CEOs and presidents to run the company the way they think it should be run. It becomes their responsibility and duty to operate the corporation in the best interest of the shareholders.

In a very real sense, Sergey and Larry are no longer the bosses…

[tags]bill webb,larry page,google china,don’t be evil,sergey brin[/tags]