Analysis of Google’s External Communications

Background
Google was founded in 1998, and a short 22 years later, you would be hard-pressed to
find someone who does not know the tech behemoth that is Google. I plan to analyze Google
LLC’s external communications to better understand the company.
I chose to analyze this company because, as a computer programmer, I hope to be
employed by Google one day. I first heard about Google because of the fantastic conditions
provided to employees which shocked me.
Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally
accessible and useful. The motto of Google used to be “don’t be evil”, but they changed it to “do
the right thing” following their corporate restructuring under the conglomerate Alphabet Inc. The
motto applied to within the company and governed how the company treated their users, as
they did not want to ever exploit, or “be evil” towards, their users. Their focus on the user
extends towards their core values, which includes focusing on the user and the rest will follow.
Additionally, Google believes that great is not good enough. The vision of the company is to
provide access to the world’s information in one click. Once again, their vision aligns with
focusing on the user and ensuring that everyone can have access to the world’s information.
Since Google sites are globally accessible, their users are anyone who visits their sites.
However, their audience extends to shareholders, anyone who follows their social media like
Instagram, and global governments. Furthermore, their main source of revenue came from
advertising through those same Google sites, including Youtube and Gmail

Founders’ IPO Letter

The first piece of Google’s external communications that I will analyze, is the 2004
Founders’ IPO Letter. When the company went public, the founders of Google issued a letter
that delved into what Google stands for and what shareholders can expect. The audience of the
letter are all the people interested in Google, including potential investors and future
shareholders. One of their statements that was repeated over and over again was that Google
will not sacrifice long term opportunities to meet the quarterly expectations of shareholders1.
They stated that the pressure of meeting expectations is harmful, as many companies will
manipulate financial results to “make their quarter.” The founders then proceed to state that they
will never lie to shareholders, insisting that if numbers are “lumpy” when they reach Google
headquarters, they will be lumpy when they reach the shareholders2. To me, the prioritization of
long term opportunities over short term benefit shows that Google will not become a company
that exploits their users in order to meet the expectations of shareholders, because in the end,
that behavior hurts the shareholders, the company, and the clients. Through sticking to their
motto of doing the right thing, from a long term perspective, Google maintains their core values.
In another section of the letter, the founders talk about their employees, who have named
themselves Googlers. They state that they provide many benefits to their employees, including
free meals and doctors, all in the hopes that they can attract creative, principled and hard
working stars. Sergey Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google, said to expect the benefits
of Googlers to increase rather than decrease in the future. As someone hoping to be employed
by Google, the fact that they clearly care for their employees and provide them with benefits,
including employee ownership of Google, makes Google even more attractive. Lastly, in a
section titled “Making the world a better place,” Google states that they aspire to better the world
through connecting people throughout the world with information, and other people, for free.

1 Page, Larry, and Sergey Brin. “2004 Founders' IPO Letter.” Alphabet Investor Relations, Alphabet,
2004, abc.xyz/investor/founders-letters/2004-ipo-letter/.
2 Ibid
That statement connects to the vision of Google of providing access to the world’s information
with just one click. All throughout the letter, the Founders, and Google, honor what their
company stands for.

Instagram Post about COVID-19

Discussing a much different subject than the Founders’ IPO Letter, the Instagram post
uploaded by Google’s official Instagram account tackles social distancing amidst the pandemic.
The post is a video of medical workers telling the viewers to stay home, as the Google search
bar on the screen looks up “how to help medical workers.” The primary purpose of Google’s
Instagram post is to get viewers to have a better understanding that the best thing they can do
to help everyone, especially the medical workers, is to stay at home. The post also encourages
their audience to make the informed decision to stay at home. Since the relationship between
Google and its audience is one of an influencer and its followers--hierarchical--Google finds it
appropriate to release a genre that advises its audience. Making Google seem like a forward-
thinking company that has the good of people and society on its mind. Through the video
posting, Google upholds the values of the company and their motto of “do the right thing,”
encouraging their audience to also do the right thing by staying home.

COVID-19 Information & Resources

Like the last piece of external communication, Google’s website titled “COVID-19
Information & Resources” involves information about the pandemic. Unlike the last social media
post however, this website is a lot more factual, relying less on emotional appeals and more on
information such as the symptoms of COVID-193. Therefore, the audience Google intends to
reach is not the flighty people of Instagram, who are not interested in data, but rather the people
who are actually interested in knowing the current state of the world. The website contains
sections of text paragraphs interspersed with videos and colorful graphs to hold attention. Since
the website is colorful and attractive, it makes the topic, morbid in nature, seem less daunting.
Furthermore, towards the bottom of the page, Google has a text box that states that Google.org
is committing $50 million to the fight against COVID-19, furthering their message of hope. This
website advances Google’s agenda of doing the right thing and spreading information to
everyone, honoring their core values, mission and vision.

Google Cloud and Global Governments

This article titled “How Google Cloud is helping global governments during the COVID-
19 pandemic, and our future plans to work with the public sector” was released by a Vice
President of Google Cloud, a product of Google. The title of the article describes the article in its
entirety. The article doubles as an advertisement for Google Cloud and as an informational
article. The purpose of the article is to highlight all the various governments using Google
products to fight the pandemic. For example, the article states that in Peru, the Judiciary branch
is using Google Meet to continue their operations4. The message of this piece of external
communication from Google is that their products are being used for the benefit of global
governments and their citizens, advertising their good values and products. Whether intentional
or not, Google has products that have helped global governments stay together during this time
of crisis. Through these products Google gets free marketing, while the governments using
Google products uphold the company’s core values by trying to help people in this pandemic.

Alphabet Quarterly Report

3 “COVID-19 Information & Resources.” Google, Google, www.google.com/covid19/.

4 Daniels, Mike.
 Within Alphabet’s 1st quarter report of 2019, the CEO of Google, Sundar Pichai
discusses Google’s various advancements. The ones that stood out to me was when he
discussed Google’s commitment to the environment. He stated that Google data centers use
50% less energy than a typical data center, and that Google has matched 100% of their
electricity consumption with purchases of renewable energy. According to Pichai, Google is the
world’s largest corporate buyer of renewable energy5.
Their overall audience for the quarterly report are the shareholders in the company. The
particular piece from Pichai’s discussion about the environment embraces the values Google
holds about bettering the world. Furthermore, it also advances their message that great is not
good enough, since they are already the best in the world at buying renewable energy,
however, they aim for more by reducing their carbon footprint even more. Through constantly
striving to reduce their carbon footprint, despite them already being one of the best companies
in the world at it, Google sticks to their motto of always trying to do the right thing.

Synthesis
Overall, from the texts I have analyzed, Google has been consistent in their mission,
values, vision, and motto. With times being darker than usual because of the pandemic, Google
has done their best to adapt and use their platform as a means to advise the general public. For
example, with the Instagram video, they are attempting to persuade their general audience to
stay at home, as that is the best way to help medical workers. In contrast, in their “COVID-19
Information & Resources” webpage, Google attempts to provide information and their audience
can choose what to do with the knowledge. In both cases, Google is providing information,
keeping with their vision statement, however, in the case of the Instagram story, Google is
pushing information with a specific message at their audience. One might think that they are
forcing information on the user, however, the video fits with the genre of Instagram posts, where
you are supposed to have a much more personal touch to what you post. Furthermore, at the
end of the video, Google provides the link to their “COVID-19 Information & Resources”,
allowing their audience to educate themselves with one click. Therefore, in both cases Google is
upholding their vision and mission statement of providing information with one click, while doing
the right thing.
The elements similar to course texts that I have seen in Google’s external
communications is their selection of genre, based on the definition in Henze’s article. Google
changes the way they communicate through genre, according to the platform they are using.
For example, in their Instagram post, Google utilized a short and entertaining video, while in
their COVID-19 Information & Resources they used a different genre, including colorful text
paragraphs and informational videos.

Works Cited

“Alphabet Q1 2019 Earnings Call.” Abc.xyz, Alphabet, 29 Apr. 2019,

abc.xyz/investor/static/pdf/2019_Q1_Earnings_Transcript.pdf?cache=ebdc584.

5 “Alphabet Q1 2019 Earnings Call.” Abc.xyz, Alphabet, 29 Apr. 2019,

abc.xyz/investor/static/pdf/2019_Q1_Earnings_Transcript.pdf?cache=ebdc584.
“COVID-19 Information & Resources.” Google, Google, www.google.com/covid19/.

Daniels, Mike. “How Google Cloud Is Helping Global Governments during the COVID-19

Pandemic, and Our Future Plans to Work with the Public Sector.” Google Cloud Covid-
19 Support for Governments | Google Cloud Blog, Google, 14 Apr. 2020,
cloud.google.com/blog/topics/inside-google-cloud/how-google-cloud-is-helping-global-
governments-during-the-covid-19-pandemic.

@Google. “This year, #WorldHealthDay recognizes the tireless contributions of nurses and

midwives everywhere. Help show your gratitude to all healthcare workers by staying
home and staying safe. #StayHomeSaveLives.” Instagram, April 7, 2020,
www.instagram.com/p/B-rlSmPl9DT/

Henze, Brent. “What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know about Genre?” Solving

Problems in Technical Communication, edited by Johndon Johnson-Eiolol and Stuart

Selber, 2013, pp. 337–361.

Page, Larry, and Sergey Brin. “2004 Founders' IPO Letter.” Alphabet Investor Relations,

Alphabet, 2004, abc.xyz/investor/founders-letters/2004-ipo-letter/.