Google Issues Pledge to Fight “Elephant Image”

Google has not been very popular in recent years due to ranking artists, privacy advocates and regulators in the area. The owner of the company states that he is looking to increase hiring, improve privacy use and level out respect for intellectual property. And from what can be seen, it is working according to the French president and German chancellor.

“When an elephant enters a crystal room, you have to be cautious, and we realize that we’re an elephant now,” Carlo d’Asaro Biondo, the French-Italian head of Google’s southern European operations, said in an interview in Paris. The company had to change, or “long-term, we would have paid for it.”

Just because Google is having issues in Europe doesn’t mean that the fan-base they do have isn’t loyal. The Europe side of the company had an 88% market share a couple months ago compared to only 66% in the U.S where Yahoo reigns supreme. The main issue in Europe is that the European Union is investigating Google’s advertising practices along with Germany threatening to fine the company over the “Street View” mapping program.

Eric Schmidt, the ex-Chairman of Google, has appeared in the U.K. and Berlin to reach out to the people since he relieved himself of CEO duties in April. At an event called “Google Zeitgeist” in Berlin yesterday, he spoke out about how the company has made changes to ensure the privacy of every member who uses the site.

Hiring great engineers from now on seems to be the plan for the company. “We’ve learned to the let the engineers build but not launch without a long conversation,” which includes consulting with public policy specialists and advocacy groups, Schmidt said. “You should be able to delete information about you that we can control. You should own your data and we should be transparent.”

Google recently suspended the “Street View” program after residents demanded that putting their homes for the world to see is an invasion of privacy. To make sure this happens, Europe will be constructing an “institute for internet and society” which will hire 1,000 people to oversee the project.

The company has also signed agreements in eight other countries that give copyright holders and artists a portion of all revenues.