Blog On The Fire
It’s the darling of the stock market, an investor’s dream, the number one search engine on the planet and maybe the only serious challenger to Microsoft’s computer dominance.
But Google is something else, as well – only human.
Officials from the online giant have, as Ricky Ricardo used to say, ‘some ‘splainin’ to do’ after someone in the company accidentally deleted its online blog and allowed it to be taken over by an external user.
The accident took place late Monday night, and before anyone at the rapidly expanding firm knew it, a 19-year-old University of Texas student named Trey Phillips noticed the error, realized the valuable address was unregistered and temporarily claimed it for his own.
The mistake could have forced Google to issue a cheque with almost as many zeroes as the actual meaning of its famous name. But luckily for the Goliath, this David didn’t have a virtual slingshot.
Instead, he posted a message to the company. “Google, fix your blog pleeasssee!,” it read. “P.S. Just to clear things up, I'm not associated with Google at all. I just wanted to take advantage of this before someone else with less worthy intentions did."
Officials with the computer colossus later reclaimed their infamous address, and admitted they’d goofed big time.
“The blog was mistakenly deleted by us (d'oh!) which allowed the blog address to be temporarily claimed by another user,” a statement on the site confessed. “This was not a hack, and nobody guessed our password. Our bad.”
So why should anyone really care about this faux pas?
Google attracted a huge wave of investors when it went public in the summer of 2004 and carries the money hopes of millions on its considerable shoulders.
It’s not the first time the fiercely maverick firm has made such a potentially expensive error.
Just a few weeks ago, the company accidentally posted a confidential look at its own financial forecast, which sent its shares plummeting.
And when it also allowed some secret slides containing information about upcoming and still unknown products to get out over the Internet, it did still more damage to its own reputation.
Analysts warn such goofs can’t be tolerated in the business world and inspire a lack of trust in the firm.
Google’s blog is one of the most widely read online, and many peruse it for hints about what the company is planning. What it says can often affect the stock price.
But on Monday it said nothing at all. And that sudden silence may well have spoken louder than any words.
March 29, 2006