So, I was about to write about online attribution and thrilling things we've been doing around it at my job but I found this article on Search Engine Watch and thought it would be more interesting for the class (perhaps you'll all get the details of my analytics work in a future post).
According to this article, Google Under Fire Again for Providing Easy Access to Prescription Drugs, Google is facing criticism for showing results (including paid search results) for Web sites that offer access to illegal drugs. The article goes on to note that Google is not profiting directly from ads for illegal drugs, just Web sites that offer illegal goods (presumably advertising for something not illegal).
I don't know any specifics and I'm not passing any judgement but I thought it was interesting, especially in context of some of the criticism made in The Search, regarding Google's "Do No Evil" policy and their tendency to turn a blind eye to "evil" when profits are on the line.
As a reminder, some of the points noted in the book were Google's stance on China and their lack of regard for brand infringement (the latter of which has impacted my work quite a bit). This was a new one to me though. The article also notes that Google paid out $500 million to avoid criminal prosecution around a similar issue regarding illegal prescription drugs in 2011.
I understand that Google must consider profits as one of its primary objectives and it truly can't police everything without flaw, but it begs the question, what's acceptable and where should the line be drawn?
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