Google Miffed at Getting 'Googled' by Reporter

The personal details of Google CEO Eric Schmidt revealed in a Google search on his name included that his shares in the company were worth US$1.5 billion, that he lived in Atherton, California, that he was the host of a $10,000-a-plate fund-raiser for Democrat Al Gore's presidential campaign and that he was a pilot.

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Google says its mission is "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." But it does not appear to take kindly to those who use its search engine to organize and publish information about its own executives.

CNETNews.com, a technology news Web site, said last week that Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) had told it that the company would not answer any questions from CNET's reporters until July 2006. The move came after CNET published an article last month that discussed how the Google search engine could uncover personal information and that raised questions about what information Google collects about its users.

Personal Data The article, by Elinor Mills, a CNET staff writer, gave several examples of information about Google's chief executive, Eric Schmidt, that could be gleaned from the search engine.

These included that his shares in the company were worth US$1.5 billion, that he lived in Atherton, Calif., that he was the host of a $10,000-a-plate fund-raiser for Democrat Al Gore's presidential campaign and that he was a pilot.

After the article appeared, David Krane, Google's director of public relations, called CNET editors to complain, said Jai Singh, the editor in chief of CNETNews.com.

"They were unhappy about the fact we used Schmidt's private information in our story," Singh said. "Our view is what we published was all public information, and we actually used their own product to find it."

First Time He said Krane called back to say that Google would not speak to any reporter from CNET for a year.

In an instant-message interview, Krane said, "You can put us down for a 'no comment.'" When asked if Google had any objection to the reprinting of the information about Schmidt in this article, Krane replied that it did not.

Singh, who has worked in technology news for more than two decades, said he could not recall a similar situation. "Sometimes a company is ticked off and won't talk to a reporter for a bit," he said. "But I've never seen a company not talk to a whole news organization."

Fresh from a Google search of "Eric Schmidt Kerry:"

Published on Thursday, August 5, 2004 by the Guardian/UK

Kerry Courts America's Corporate Leaders

by David Teather in New York

John Kerry, the Democratic nominee for president, published a list of about 200 entrepreneurs supporting his run for the White House, in an effort to reassure voters of his moderate credentials.

The list, not unexpectedly, included endorsements from players in the entertainment and fashion industries.

Among the signatories were Miramax boss Harvey Weinstein; former Hollywood mogul Barry Diller; the chairman of Warner Music, Edgar Bronfman Jr; Dreamworks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg; Peter Chernin, the chief operating officer of News Corporation and Jann Wenner, chairman of Rolling Stone magazine's publisher, Wenner Media. Designers on the list included Donna Karan, Vera Wang and Diane von Furstenberg.

But there was backing from other industries. Mr Kerry has public support from Robert Fisher, chairman of The Gap, August Busch, president of Budweiser's brewer, Anheuser-Busch, Jim Clark, the founder of Netscape and Eric Schmidt, the chief executive of Google. He also lists a handful of senior Wall Street figures.

Mr Kerry released the list on the campaign trail in Iowa, a key swing state in the midwest where he is currently neck and neck with George Bush in the polls. Bill Clinton employed a similar tactic in his successful run for the White House in 1992. Publication of the list hints at the erosion of a traditional Republican party base.

Mr Kerry has already enlisted the respected investor Warren Buffett and Apple founder Steve Jobs to his team. But the Republicans have deeper support among the business community and Mr Bush has raised more than Mr Kerry from corporate donors.

Owsley Brown II, chairman of Brown-Forman, the maker of Jack Daniel's, is a former Bush supporter now backing Mr Kerry. He told the Wall Street Journal: "It's not something someone does lightly and certainly not for someone like me, a registered Republican all my life. But it seems pretty clear that our choice last time has not been such a good one for the United States."

Former Chrysler chief, Lee Iacocca, campaigned for Mr Bush in 2000 but has switched to Mr Kerry.

He said Mr Bush was taking the US "in the wrong direction".

The list appeared to be aimed at calming the nerves of some voters concerned that some of Mr Kerry's campaign promises might herald a hostile environment for corporate America.

He has promised tax breaks for companies which employ workers in the US to discourage outsourcing and to close tax loopholes for companies registering overseas.

He has also promised to end the special interests which have infiltrated Washington, especially the influence of the oil and gas industries in shaping government energy policy.

Mr Kerry has also said he would roll back some of the tax breaks for the rich, awarded by Mr Bush.

Releasing the list, Mr Kerry said: "George Bush has been bad for American business. His irresponsible mismanagement of the economy has led to record deficits, job loss and decreased confidence in the economy."

The music industry is also backing Mr Kerry. More than 20 acts including Bruce Springsteen, REM, Pearl Jam and the Dixie Chicks are to perform fundraising concerts in an effort to unseat Mr Bush. Nine concerts are planned, all in swing states.

"We're trying to put forward a group of progressive ideals and change the administration in the White House," Springsteen told the Associated Press. "That's the success of failure, very clear-cut and very simple".

Wall Street chiefs backing Mr Kerry include Robert Hormats, the vice chairman of Goldman Sachs, Thomas Lee, who runs the venture capital firm Thomas Lee Company, Arthur Levitt, the former chairman of the securities and exchange commission and the investment banker Bruce Wasserstein.

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