Google Is Now An In-House Lobbyist
September 19, 2007 – 6:04 pmIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Not content to just be a search engine, Google is now bringing their influence to Government and has registered their first in-house lobbyist.
Google used a number of outside lobby firms until this year, including the Podesta Group to represent the companies interests.
“We’ve expanded our presence because there are an increasing number of issues being debated in Washington that are of concern to our users,” said Adam Kovacevich, a spokesman for Google, which spent $580,000 in first six months of 2007 to lobby the federal government.
Kovacevich cited concerns such as net neutrality, privacy concerns and online child safety as reasons that they are stepping up their interests in government regulations.
They registered the following people as their lobbyists: Alan Davidson, Google’s senior policy counsel who started the Washington office; Rick Whitt, the company’s media and telecommunications counsel; Johanna Shelton, former counsel to the House Energy and Commerce Committee; and Pablo Chavez, who was chief counsel to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
It seems that Google is having no troubles putting themselves into the thick of things no matter where they decide to go.
What are your thoughts on Google lobbying? Is it good or bad for web surfers?
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