Letters

Inside the Google Empire

Our search into the inner workings of the Internet-service giant Google turned up enthusiasm for the brilliance behind its simplicity and success and for its "don't be evil" mantra. But disillusion has already struck for those who think Google trashed that tenet by censoring its way into China's cyberspace

I very much enjoyed your article on the Google empire [Feb. 20]. But did TIME's reporters walk out of the Googleplex, the company's headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., really understanding why Google is so successful? Google's triumph lies in its enormous user base. Growing that base to infinity plus one is far more important than ad revenues. Once you have the most wanted product in the universe, you have a googol (1 followed by 100 zeros) possible ways to make money.

JOHN SKELLY Mons, France

Despite Google's refusal to turn over data on people's Internet use to U.S. prosecutors, the company is actually betraying its customers' trust by retaining information on every search and resultant Web-page retrieval. If phone companies logged the content of everybody's phone calls, consumers would be outraged. Perhaps Google's respecting the privacy of its customers is not congruent with the goal of Internet domination.

ED R. BAUMAN Santa Monica, Calif.

I trust Google to protect my privacy a whole lot more than I do the occupant of the White House and the corporate chieftains he takes his orders from.

CHRIS GODWIN Delaware City, Del.

Google is young, small and agile enough to create a unique culture of Web-use creativity that feeds its bottom line. I was impressed to learn that each Google employee is supposed to devote 10% of his or her time to exploring far-out ideas. I also like the company's emphasis on developing technology first and finding an economically viable business model second. Google could apply those values by entering the spam wars. If it develops an antispam tool that defeats e-mail evildoers, Google will continue growing while furthering its philosophy.

KEVIN A. KEANE Lafayette, N.J.

Google's censored Chinese website raises a question: Does Google value profits over providing the best service to Chinese consumers? In China, Google's real customer is the government, not the people. Google should make full disclosure to the Chinese people of its compromised goods.

HOMER E. MYERS Vancouver, Wash.

It hardly matters that when people in China Google Tiananmen, the results do not include photos of rows of tanks. Google's different versions reflect the thinking of different people. In China, people prefer to look forward. But in the West, people like to look back. The Western media are full of stories about massacres, genocide and dictatorships in remote countries that most Western readers are barely aware of. China's Tiananmen Square is such a great place, the entrance to the magnificent Forbidden City. Why do Westerners prefer to see the tanks on the street?

FENG WANG Brussels

Calling for Cooler Heads

The reaction of the Muslim world to the now infamous Muhammad cartoons continues [Feb. 20]. It is clear that reason will never play a role in that. Zealots and moderate Muslims alike continue to denounce the cartoons as an attack on Islam. What they fail to realize is that a handful of cartoons intended to be published only once is not a war. The horrible irony is that the real war--the terrorists' war--is not just a war against the West. In the end, the majority of victims will be Muslims killed by Muslims.

WHIT BROUSSARD Ottawa

Cartoons Without Politics

"Tumult In Toontown" [Feb. 20] noted that none of the three animated feature films nominated for Academy Awards (Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit, Tim Burton's Corpse Bride and Howl's Moving Castle) used computer-generated imagery (CGI) and reasoned that resentment of animation veterans toward CGI could have played a part. That is simply not true. CGI films had been nominated every year since the Animation Feature category was created in 2001. The awards are not about box-office grosses or whether a film is CGI or not; the awards are about quality. Without question, the three best films were nominated this year. In the future there are going to be more excellent animated features, and perhaps they won't be CGI--so get used to it.

BOB KURTZ FORMER GOVERNOR, ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS & SCIENCES

Los Angeles

No Animals Allowed

As a founding father of Pi Kappa Phi at Cornell University, I was happy to learn from your article on Sigma Phi Epsilon's Balanced Man Program [Feb. 20] that other fraternities are taking steps to positively redefine their organizations. At Pi Kapp we strive to reform stereotypical frat life. Since our refounding two years ago, we have developed a strict no-hazing policy, maintaining that you can't build a man up by breaking him down. Pi Kappa Phi has its own philanthropy, Push America, an organization serving people with disabilities through fund raising, volunteering and empathy. We promote growth internally via resume-interview workshops, guest speakers and weekly fireside chats. Of course, we also socialize, but we aim to accomplish more for ourselves and to better serve our campus and community.

MICHAEL J. REINITZ PUBLIC RELATIONS CHAIRMAN, PI KAPPA PHI, CORNELL UNIVERSITY Ithaca, N.Y.

Unpersuasive Picture

"Abramoff's Kodak Moment" [Feb. 20] described a gathering of about two dozen people that included President Bush, Raul Garza--who was a client of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff--and Abramoff himself. The photo of the meeting that TIME published shows Bush and Garza shaking hands, with Abramoff in the background between a wall and some onlookers. You even had to draw a circle around his face to point him out. That photo goes nowhere near making the case that Bush and Abramoff were close; it makes the case that TIME was desperate for any picture that included the two. If a picture is worth a thousand words, that one says TIME has no sense of credibility.

DAVID KING London