Oh Google, How Could You?

Dear Google,

I thought we had a relationship based on mutual respect and understanding. You would service all my search needs, and I would occasionally click on those clean, unobtrusive ads on the left hand margin of the results. In return, I would usually find what I was looking for, and you would become one of the most powerful companies on earth.

Meanwhile, your homepage–our homepage–would remain clean and pure and white, signifying a fresh new start upon each visit. Every once in a while, you might throw in one of those clever little logo doodles, so I would know that it was Jim Henson’s Birthday or I might learn who Consuelo Velasquez or Luigi Pirandello were.

We had a good thing going, Google. Why’d you have to go and screw it up?

This week, you broke our covenant. You put an animated banner ad on your homepage. Sure, this “covenant” was unspoken, as you never officially promised that the homepage would remain forever pure and white and clean. But I thought we understood each other.

I thought I knew you.

The fact that this animated ad was for one of your own products doesn’t make this any easer to take. I’m sure the Nexus 7 tablet is fantastic and I hope you sell a ton of them. I’m also aware of the fact that this is not the first time you have placed an ad on our clean, white homepage…but the one for the Nexus One phone in 2010 was just text. I didn’t like that one either, but I forgave you. Everyone makes mistakes.

I tried to forgive you this time too. After all, I thought, I increasingly bypass the homepage in favor of the search bar on my browser. Maybe (I thought) everyone else was doing the same thing, and you felt that the homepage was being taken for granted. Then I Googled how many users still visit. A billion uniques a year? Dang, Google.

Here’s the thing. I still love you. I have no interest in getting to know Bing, and I would feel downright silly using Yahoo. I even use you as a VERB (see preceding paragraph). You have built a powerful image for yourself, and now you’re using it to push a product on me.

Sigh.

I expected more from you. I knew that you were worth $200 billion, and I totally respected the fact that you managed to reach that dizzying height without defiling our magical white space. Your willpower was remarkable. It made you seem like more than just another company.

I will still Google, but I don’t want to be your girlfriend anymore.