If irony is a drink best served on the rocks, Google
If you're missing the irony on that last point, it's that Google actually runs the popular Blogger.com site. By encouraging common netizens to open up and speak their minds while divulging their most intimate of details, Web logs have become wildly popular.
However, Jen -- who was not chronicling his rants and raves on Blogger.com -- was a little too forthcoming with criticism of his new employer. Hired back in January, he had no problem posting things going on at the company as well as comparing his compensation package at Google with that provided by his former employer, Microsoft
Last year, a Delta
The Internet offers an inviting platform to vent, but freedom of speech is not an absolute right. Bloggers must be careful even when writing about companies they don't work for -- Apple Computer
Might the liability trickle all the way back up to the blog platform providers themselves? It's always possible. Time Warner
The trend is booming, so it would be a tragedy to see blogs go away in a legal tussle. With strong voices in just about every industry pecking away in vital blogs, it would be everyone's loss -- and then Google would be left swirling a warm drink in its hand, wondering where the party went.
Before you buy the next round:
- Find out why Ask Jeeves went a-blogging.
- Ask yourself whether blogs are overrated.
- Share your thoughts in the Google discussion board.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz thinks that if Abe Lincoln were around today, he would have built a blog cabin. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.