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Polls to the people! Google shares to the people! |
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Wednesday, 05 May 2004 |
I realized today my polling module wasn't set to allow anonymous visitors to vote. Given the tendency of my blog to promote free and open source software, and freedom in general, I rectified the situation after a little googling about postnuke permissions. Let the voice of the people be heard (yes all two of you, and on completely irreverant subjects).
Speaking of Google... I have long admired the company for doing something useful without "selling out". The company's philosophy amazes me not because of what it says, but because it's consistent with what they do (I especially like number six and number nine). I was concerned when they started to consider an IPO because going public could change the company for the worse. It seemed to me the responsiblities to satisfy Wall Street were not aligned with the company's values. On top of that, the disclosure that comes with public filings could take away a significant competitive advantage - the ability to move under the radar. GMail came out of nowhere and by the time it goes live competitors will still be struggling to figure out how it works. As if that wasn't enough, I guessed they probably didn't need the money.
They decided to go forward with a public filing and as part of that process revealed a war chest of almost half a billion dollars they are adding to at a rate of over one hundred million a year. So I was right about the money, but it looks like secrecy might not be as important in the future for Google as it has been in the past. They have developed an astoundingly large and resilient network.
And as for the misalignment of Wall Street and Google values, true to Google form they did it their way.
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