How Google tries to manipulate the biz media

Ben Jacklet of Oregon Business magazine writes Thursday about how Google’s PR team has tried to get free publicity from the business media for its new Groupon-like venture.

Jacklet writes, “The problem with Google is, for all of its laudable ideals about open access to information, the company is exceedingly closed with its own information. Google controls its corporate PR just as zealously as do Monsanto and ExxonMobil. When the news story involves the marketing launch of a new Google product, the information flows freely from company to journalist to the web, where it is searched for and found through Google. When the news story involves electricity use at a Google server farm, user privacy concerns, or other less promotional subjects, Google does not comment, and the information flows less freely, if at all.

“The pitch I received the other day from Google was really a marketing ploy. It was not a news story. This fact was verified the following day, when a Google rep showed up at our office with free cookies from the coffee shop being used to launch the new Google product in Portland (I turned him away). News stories generally don’t come with free cookies. PR blitzes do. The one specific question I asked the Google PR rep about Google’s coupon deal involved revenue sharing between the local business and Google. How exactly does this arrangement work, and how does it differ from Groupon? Didn’t get an answer.

“As a business journalist, I spend a lot of time dodging PR campaigns disguised as news stories. When it’s Google calling, my interest perks up. Perhaps we will finally get some relevant information about Google’s August 2010 purchase of Instantiations and the resulting work being done in Portland. Or the server farm in The Dalles. Or exciting new open source initiatives in Oregon. No such luck. The last news story Google shared with Oregon journalists involved Google Hotpot, the company’s response to the success of Yelp”