Times Online has an alarmist article about the environmental impact of Google searches which elicited an apology of sorts from Google in which they explain that the numbers in the original article were inflated. They then proceed to show how much penance they have already done, for the sin of doing business, through climate saving initiatives and other philanthropic work.
Yesterday, I posted about the never-ending guilt trip we get for having an environmental footprint. This is exactly what that guilt trip looks like:
If your internet use is in place of more energy-intensive activities, such as driving your car to the shops, that’s good. But if it is adding activities and energy consumption that would not otherwise happen, that may pose problems.
Only use your internet for important tasks. You’d better not enjoy it. Environmentalism sounds more like a religion every day, telling us to suffer through life for a higher cause instead of enjoying the convenience of an amazing technology.
The article goes on to tell us that Google is too good at what they do and should scale back on that a bit:
When you type in a Google search for, say, “energy saving tips”, your request doesn’t go to just one server. It goes to several competing against each other. It may even be sent to servers thousands of miles apart. Google’s infrastructure sends you data from whichever produces the answer fastest. The system minimises delays but raises energy consumption.
Google’s speed and quality of results are their bread and butter. They’ve grown to be one of the greatest company’s ever because of these qualities and their ability to improve on them. And this article suggests that they deliberately make their product worse and therefore less marketable to the consumer. Does choosing to make an inferior product, that nobody wants and which will hurt profitability, in order to be more “efficient” sound familiar? If the government catches wind of this article we’ll be bailing out the search engines along with Detroit.
Google violates no one’s rights by buying and using the energy required by their business. Running a successful business is not a sin and requires no apology. The opposite is true. It is a moral achievement that demands respect which I offer Google in the form of using their products.
If you want to question the morality of Google, ask them about their business practices and goals that do violate individual rights. Ask them to stand up to the Chinese government and end their complicity in censoring search results. Or tell them to stop their support for net neutrality which would be a terrible violation of the rights of the individuals and companies that build and provide the infrastructure that makes Google’s success possible, and improves our lives immeasurably.
The bottom line is Google is awesome. I’ve been pimping out Gmail since I got my invite. And I’m sick of people apologizing for being good at what they do.