The Business Ethics Blog

It’s Friday, and it’s sunny outside, so why not a (mostly) positive story about business ethics?

Google, in addition to being the world’s most popular internet search engine, has something of a reputation for ethics. From what I’ve read, that reputation includes both a commitment to ethical business practices, and a more general interest in making the world a better place. There’s also indication that a lot of what goes right, ethically, at Google has to do with the leadership of Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. (Here’s a letter from Page & Brin to Google’s shareholders, describing their thoughts on this.)

Here’s a link to Google’s corporate philosophy.

Google’s unofficial code of conduct is simple: “Don’t be evil” (or, alternatively, “Do no evil”). Here’s the Wikipedia entry for that slogan.

The Register has this story (almost 2 years ago) about Google’s commitment to ethics: “Google’s Ethics Committee revealed”

The Economist has this story (yesterday) about one of Google’s founders: “St Lawrence of Google”

Wired had this story (3 years ago) about Google: “Google vs. Evil”

BBC News had this story in May of 2004: “10 things the Google ethics committee could discuss”