PR Abhors a Vacuum

From Wired News, a story about internet darling Google exhibiting some extreme foolishness on the PR front.

In a story about the wealth of information about individuals that's available via Google, CNET News.com writer Elinor Mills gave an example: she used Google to come up with all kinds of personal information about Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO.

In response, Google is refusing to talk to anyone from News.com. As a result, every News.com story that involves Google - and that's a lot of stories - includes a note reading, ""Google could not be immediately reached for comment. (Google representatives have instituted a policy of not talking with CNET News.com reporters until July 2006 in response to privacy issues raised by a previous story.)"

This makes Google seem like they've got something to hide. And one wonders if Google is paying sufficient attention to a brewing PR problem with respect to private information available via their search services.

Clamming up is almost never the right response when dealing with the press. If Google was upset about the information on Schmidt included in the original story (and that's not unreasonable) they should be talking to News.com about the problem. Instead, their voice is going to absent from a wide range of stories - which means that other companies, including Google competitors like Yahoo, will be there to fill the space.

Google is generally respected as a very smart outfit. This kind of silliness is rather surprising.