Has the company lost its "moral compass"?

Google isn't starting 2007 on the right foot, at least according to a host of commentators. The company's pristine reputation has recently tarnished in the wake of a security flaw in the company's Gmail service as well as accusations of "anti-competitive" behavior.

The former issue came to late in late December when several Gmail users noticed that their contact lists had been erased. Upon investigation Google's software team determined that code running on a malicious website could allow the site's owner to access Gmail if a user was at the same time signed in to the email service. Reports indicate that the flaw has been actively exploited for a number of weeks prior to its discovery.

Also Google has faced allegations of managing search engine results so its own services are on top. Firefox co-founder Blake Ross commented on his blog that terms such as "blog", "calendar" and "photo sharing" would show Google's own services as the "most relevant" result. He later commented that the company seems to have lost its "moral compass", no doubt a reference to the company's unofficial mantra of "don't be evil".

In reality criticism of Google is neither new nor unexpected. While the latest round of issues has made great headlines, they don't change the fact that some folks have always maintained doubts about Google's altruistic nature. As recent history has shown us no matter how much good will you generate some people will always view your company with distain and distrust.

The interesting thing is that as Google continues to grow and expand it will inevitably find its self in a similar place as Microsoft. Regardless of how good its products are or how much those products improve productivity or our lives, some will still find room to criticize the company. And honestly some of that criticism may be rightly leveled against the giant. However Google can avoid the Microsoft fate not in how much good will they do, but in how they deal with criticism and controversy. This has been an extreme sore spot for Microsoft and will ultimately determine Google's long lasting legacy.