Google the Golden Child?

"Google it."  "Why don't you just google it?"  You probably have heard these phrases or said them yourself, at least once a week.  I mean if I have a question, it has become automatic for me to use google.com to get the answer.  So automatic that the brand name has become a verb for most internet users.

In the advertising world, brand awareness on the internet is almost vital to a company's success.  Companies will pay thousands for search optimization, just so their website will appear at the top of the list on Google.  Trust comes in from all angles to google.com, from the person who wants to know what the ugliest dog breed is to the company who trusts their search optimization specialists to identify the right keywords to be sure that their company is first.

Recently, Jonathon Mayer from The Center for Internet and Society at Stanford Law School discovered something fishy going on with Google, the golden child of the internet world--an alleged invasion of privacy using "Safari Trackers."  According to his article, Google used a software trick that wormed its way around Safari's privacy limitations on third-party tracking.

They are now facing a hefty $10 million fine, thanks to Mayer's discovery.  Google has admitted to implanting the code, however, responded by saying they did not collect any personal information from users.

Brand trust and brand identity on the internet can be a tricky thing, and for a ginormous company such as Google, there is an extreme amount of brand trust from users and advertisers.  An incident such as this one shows that people should never put their blind trust into a company, no matter how "good" or "trustworthy" it may seem, because it is, after all, just a company like any other.  Whether the allegations of collecting personal information or not is true, this can be viewed as a wake up call for people to look out for their own privacy on the internet, especially the next time you go to "Google" something.