Google’s Tim Bray on three years at Google and the downside ‘if Google becomes evil’

Tim Bray turns 3 at Google this week. His post on his time is a thoughtful one.

On Google turning evil for real:

Being Evil · There’s no there there. Near as I can tell three years in, Google really wants you to be online all the time (signed in if possible) and put everything in the cloud and use our search engine and and enjoy those experiences and not get hacked, and that’s about it. The money we make falls out of those things.

The interesting question isn’t “Is Google evil?” (answer: not particularly) but “What’s the downside if Google suddenly becomes evil?” Because the chance is nonzero that when our founders die or get bored, MBAs with desiccated souls will be in command, and not really understand why it matters that people have decided, by and large, to trust us.

Fortunately, there’s a firewall: the Data Liberation Front, which strongly limits the evil that an evil Google could do. It’s simultaneously a useful utility and the canary in the coalmine. People should pay attention to it.

Bray’s one of those people I trust to fall outside of corporate-speak and tell it like it is. If I were Google, I’d open an office in Vancouver. Yesterday.