What I think about Google

"Google should be presumed virtuous until proven evil. Just because it could be evil does not mean it is. Just being big and powerful does not make it evil. In this country, we tend to value success until one becomes too successful, and then we become suspicious. How much success is too much?" Jeff Jarvis

Do morality and profit go together?
They could, and somebody must say they should, but they usually do not need to.
Usually profit comes first.
Because morality doesn't fill your stomach as well as profit.
Sometimes it doesn't at all.

Do performance and profit go together?
Usually they do. If you are successful you must be good, it is not always true the other way around, if you are good you are not necessarily successful.
Success depends on many variables.
First you must be known and to be known you must be widespread.
Google was there at the right moment, at the right time and was as good as nobody else.
You tried it, you were satisfied and you were addicted.
So addicted that when you search, automatically you type Google.com.
"In China and in other nations where free speech is attacked, Google should use its power and influence - which are greater than even it seems to know - to refuse to issue censored search results."

I do not see how Google could.
Once you are out, what can you do to improve free speech?

" I also wish that Google were more transparent about the business arrangement in its ad networks. Google demands transparency from the rest of us - if we want Google juice - but it is too often opaque itself. But opaqueness has long been standard procedure in business."

Well the usual saying goes: We all have the same rights, as long as Google has its own rights...When you have power you also have privileges...

"Our world is a better place because of Google"

I wouldn't say better.
More people are on the Internet. More people are connected and can easily communicate.
Google has a more effective and "independent" PR, where more or less everybody has his "right"(more or less) placement on the Internet.
Google gave the chance to companies to create products, jobs, value, and wealth.

All this existed before Google and will exist after Google, but Google gave a voice to it, created hierarchies so that more or less everybody is entitled to shout when his turn comes and if he has something interesting to say.

And if he doesn't (or Google thinks he doesn't), he will be after the 10 pages of the search...relegated to eternal anonymity...