Washington — Perhaps bored with having conquered the online ad market, Google has just launched a blog focused on US government legislation and regulation, a move that betrays its growing interest in overt political affairs, reports Yahoo.
The blog focuses on issues such as privacy and copyright protection. It has existed internally for over two months.
The blog features video of the recent appearances of John McCain and John Edwards at the Mountain View headquarters, the congressional testimony of YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley and Google’s Laszlo Bock on immigration and an analysis of the role of online politics in the French presidential election.
The blog also includes posts from Andrew McLaughlin, director of public policy, and other Google executives on a range of policy issues. One post is a lengthy explanation of Google’s position on network neutrality that was sent to the Federal Communications Commission.
“We are seeking to do public policy advocacy in a Googley way,” wrote Director Andrew McLaughlin of Google’s public policy and government affairs department.
We want our users to be part of the effort, to know what we are saying and why, and to help us refine and improve our policy positions and advocacy strategies. With input and ideas from our users, we will surely do a better job of fighting for our common interests.
The blog is part of Google’s efforts to step up its focus on the U.S. government since early 2005. Last year, it was one of the leading Web-based companies calling on Congress to pass net neutrality rules that would prohibit broadband carriers from blocking or slowing Web content offered by their competitors.
This year, Google has joined a debate on how the U.S. Federal Communications Commission should auction 60MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz band being vacated by U.S. television stations. Google has called on the FCC to open up bidding to small companies through real-time auctions and designate a chunk of the spectrum for wireless broadband services.
Google and other Internet companies are battling telecom and cable companies over future regulations that would affect the delivery and pricing of online services. The FCC is now studying the complex issue.
Although the blog went public Monday, several of its posts were added in recent weeks, as the Google’s Washington office geared up for the project. The blog also links to many other Google blogs and other bloggers.
We started the blog internally back in April to limber up our blogging muscles, said Adam Kovacevich, Google spokesman in Washington. “Now that we have gone public, we thought it would be fun to share our earlier internal posts.”
Google has recently complained to the U.S. Department of Justice about what it sees as antitrust violations in Microsoft’s Vista operating system. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission in May also began investigating Google’s proposed US$3.1 billion purchase of online advertising seller DoubleClick.
Google now has eight senior policy and public relations employees and four support employees in Washington, compared to just one public policy staffer in early 2005.
Kovacevich said to expect Google officials offering opinions and company positions on censorship, national security, trade and privacy issues — with plenty of chances for users to respond.
According to McLaughlin, the blog reflects the company’s role as a non-traditional company with millions of users:
Yes, we are a multinational corporation that argues for our positions before officials, legislators and opinion leaders. At the same time, we want our users to be part of the effort, to know what we are saying and why, and to help us refine and improve our policy positions and advocacy strategies.
“This blog is part of the dialogue we are hoping to foster.” (http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com)