We have a great country and if anybody needs proof of this, Google co-founder and billionaire Sergey Brin offered it up yesterday when he roamed the corridors on Capitol Hill in jeans and sneakers to lobby members on net neutrality.
In talking to Reuters after his visit, Brin made a (not surprisingly) smart rebuttal to the poster child status awarded to Google by broadband providers. Cable operators and phone companies have held up the enormously rich and successful Google as a company looking to get a “free ride” on their networks.
Brin acknowledged that Google, in fact, has the cash to pay for prioritized delivery to users, but said that Google is only as good as the sites it links to, and if those sites have to pay for priority, then Google is damaged even if it pays for fast-lane access.
Brin acknowledged large companies such as Google would be able to cut deals with the network owners to get their content through. But he added that Google searches are only valuable if consumers can then quickly access the sites listed in the results.
“The thesis is that some content providers will pay for premium service. Why are they paying? Just because they feel charitable toward the telcos and ISPs?” Brin asked. “I assume they are paying because otherwise they would have worse performance, or maybe it won’t really work.”
In very encouraging news, Brin also told reporters after his visits that Google is having doubts about its concession to Chinese government censorship demands. This AP piece says that Brin admitted to compromising Google’s principles and is struggling to make the situation in China work before deciding to “reverse course.”
Meeting with reporters near Capitol Hill, Brin said Google had agreed to the censorship demands only after Chinese authorities blocked its service in that country. Google’s rivals accommodated the same demands — which Brin described as “a set of rules that we weren’t comfortable with” — without international criticism, he said.
“We felt that perhaps we could compromise our principles but provide ultimately more information for the Chinese and be a more effective service and perhaps make more of a difference,” Brin said.
Update: This Washington Post article says that Brin met with “Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) as well as other members of the House and Senate whom they declined to identify.”
More interestingly, the Post piece says that a print ad campaign started yesterday (one pitfall of being plugged into newspapers online: print campaigns become invisible) that takes on Google by name in the net neutrality fight.
“Americans are about to get a real choice to cable TV. But is Google going to blow it up?” said one print advertisement paid for by TV4US, a group whose financial backers include AT&T Inc., the largest U.S. phone company.
Brin (who probably reads his papers online too) seemed taken aback by the news that ads are attacking Google.
Brin said he had learned only yesterday about the print ad — which has a TV twin that has been running in Washington markets — and he appeared surprised when asked if Google might run its own campaign to fight back.
“I think it’s worth a conversation. I am probably naive. I was very surprised to see this,” he said.
Cynthia Brumfield at 7:57 AM|Comments(0)
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