Google has really been getting horrific press here recently. Reminds me of Microsoft earlier in the decade. After the Google Books settlement issue and the complaints from Chinese authors, now People’s Daily seems to be getting in the act with the following accusation:

[T]he Web site of the People’s Daily is accusing Google of “malicious revenge” after Google searches for the People’s Daily Online’s books section turned up warnings that read: “This site may contain malicious software that could harm your computer.” An article posted on the People’s Daily books page, from the Beijing Times (in Chinese), quoted an official with the People’s Daily site as saying he had received numerous calls from readers who said they were unable to access the site through Google. The unnamed official said there was no harmful software on the site, and that he believed the block was due to the site’s reporting of the Google Books story. (WSJ blog)

{sigh}

Look, I’m no apologist for Google, but this is quite ridiculous. Let’s count the ways:

1. Everyone reported on the Google Books story, including me, and not just People’s Daily. Why would they be singled out?

2. The malicious software system is automatic. Most surfers have experienced these sorts of warnings for sites that are obviously “clean,” so we all know that mistakes happen. I’m sure the site has some kind of funky code on it that triggered all of this in the first place.

3. Google has been accused of many things in the past, but not to my knowledge of petty revenge.

4. “Numerous readers” called People’s Daily about the Google block? Do you find that as hard to believe as I do?

This is getting out of hand. Someone at Google needs to hire a good PR firm.