Google Launches Another PR Ploy, Er, Google for Non-Profits
by
on March 18, 2008,
Color me jaded. At a time when there seems to be a huge upswing in companies launching to either do good or add doing good to their repertoire, Google wants to jump that train. The problem is that repackaging existing services as a “charitable” idea doesn't really make it as a good will gesture.
Today, Google launched Google for Non-Profits, a destination site that, er, looks almost the same as the standard Google offerings page. They've simply posted links to their existing services that can be used by non-profits (just like everyone else), and didn't even go to the trouble of creating a “Google for Non-Profits” logo. Similar to last month's announcement that Grand Central would continue to offer free phone numbers to the homeless in San Francisco as they'd been doing all along, this is nothing more than public relations.
It shouldn't be this difficult for Google to do something important that really gives back. We're seeing companies like RiverWired, a news and social site centered on green issues, and RecycleBank, a site that rewards users for recycling, get funded, so it's obvious someone thinks there is a large audience for these types of sites. And Eric Janszen believes that the solution to the U.S.'s economic woes is a restructuring based on cleantech: green technologies. It's clear that green is fast becoming the new black, so why is it taking Google so long to back green efforts or actual charitable efforts instead of pointing out that they have free things that charitable organizations can use just like the regular folk?
