Since acquiring Blogger in 2003, Google has launched a large network of company blogs – on a wide variety of topics. One such site – “Google Health Advertising Blog,” recently featured a post that took aim at Michael Moore’s new film “Sicko.” The premise of employee Lauren Turner’s item was to encourage health industry advertisers to purchase AdWords targeted at people searching for topics related to the film. The entry quickly triggered criticism. Turner later stepped back and said the opinions were hers alone – not Google’s official stance.
Then, the “Official Google Blog” weighed in on the flap:
We’ve been proponents of corporate blogging for some time, despite the significant communication challenges that obviously arise from having many voices from all parts of our company speak publicly through blog posts. In this case, the blog criticized Michael Moore’s new film “Sicko” to suggest how health care companies might use our ad programs when they face controversy. Our internal review of the piece before publication failed to recognize that readers would — properly, but incorrectly — impute the criticisms as reflecting Google’s official position. We blew it.
Forbes keenly pointed out that Google senior software engineer Matt Cutts operates a personal blog where he often weighs in company-related topics. It’s a kind of split personality,” industry analyst Danny Sullivan told the magazine. “Here you’ve got Turner using her personal opinion on the official blog. But Cutts is putting official opinion on his personal blog. If you want to decipher Google’s opinion, it’s very easy to get mixed up.”
