Tab Atkins Jr. is a creepy little man
Thursday, September 7, 2017 by Frogboy | Discussion: Personal Computing
I want to tell you the story of a situation I ran into with a Google employee named Tab Atkins Jr.
So what do you get if you combine a petty little man like Tab Atkins Jr. and a culture that promotes defaming people who don't share your ideology? The answer: Manipulated search results to punish those they believe "deserve it".
With the increasing evidence that Google some employees have no problem trying to ruin the careers of those that they disagree with, it is not surprising that its employees feel comfortable using their privileged position at Google to smite those guilty of wrong-think.
Take the case of Google search employee Tab Atkins Jr. After a Twitter spat with Zoe Quinn, Atkins decided that social justice needed to be served and wrote a libelous smear of me on his blog with the title "Brad Wardell is a douchebag"...three years ago.
As a semi-public figure I'm pretty used to someone, somewhere writing something unpleasant about me. What I was not prepared for, however, was someone who knew Google's search algorithms well enough to keep their little blog post up at the top of Google (but no other search engine's) search results for three years.
Compare the difference:
BING:
No where to be found.
DuckDuckGo:
No where to be found.
GOOGLE:
Right at the top just behind my Twitter and Wikipedia pages.
Now mind you, I've been featured in a lot of newspapers, magazines and websites over the years from Time Magazine to the WSJ to USA Today and of course frequently in the technology news sector. None of those articles come up. LinkedIn.com doesn't even come up. Even the infamous false allegation of "sexual harassment" that certain gaming journalists latched onto (and later apologized for) can't beat it.
Either the SEO managers at LinkedIn, FaceBook, Kotaku, USAToday.com, Time.com, etc. need to recruit this guy...or, more likely, this guy knows how to manipulate Google search results. I don't know if Google gives preferential treatment to results from its employees or not. What is known is that the results are unique to Google and have managed to survive 3 years at the top despite his blog not being notable.
However, the issue I have isn't just about Tab bt rather, what it says about Google's culture. I don't think anyone I have ever worked with would feel comfortable doing this to someone. I'm the publisher of Neowin and it's never occurred to me to use my power to try to ruin an individual. What is the mindset of someone who writes something like that and then uses what appears to be insider SEO knowledge to ensure it nears the top? What it says to me is that there's something gross about Google's culture and that they have a pretty high confidence that they can mete our social justice at those they feel deserve it.
Now, imagine if I weren't already a successful CEO that will never have to find a new job but instead was just "some guy". What Tab did would be catastrophic. It sends a chilling message to those who participate in social media: Piss off an SJW at Google and they will use their privileged position to harm you.
Now, you might ask "Have I reached out to Tab?" and the answer is, yes:
That was two years ago. In which he responded "he'd think about it".
Perhaps Google has some other explanation as to how their employee's 3 year-old blog gets to the top only on Google and no other site. I have my own opinions.
In the meantime, consider this: Imagine if an employee at Google had written such an article about say Zoe Quinn or some other SJW darlying? What do you think would happen to them?
Up until the revelation that Google employees will actively banish people who don't share their politics I was willing to think that Tab was just an isolated "bad apple". But now, I feel very uncomfortable at that thought that anyone out there with the "wrong opinion" is only a few keystrokes away from being smeared by Google employees in the online search results.
I am hopeful that this current trend of using the Internet to deplatform, defame and otherwise attempt to harm people comes to an end.
The irony of returning the favor by naming this post after Tab isn't lost on me. However, since Tab doesn't seem to be familiar with the concept of empathy or decency, the best I can do is make sure that others know the kind of unethical behavior being engaged in by Google employees.
Your opinions are welcome.
Update:
You may have heard that Zoe Quinn's accusations against someone resulted in that person killing themselves. It's just a reminder that SJWs are not the "good guys". They're often horrible people who virtue signal in order to distract from the fact that they are, themselves, terrible people.
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Reply #42 Thursday, August 30, 2018 4:41 PM
Yea, I completed this political compass thing a few years ago. Not sure about the accuracy of this thing. As I recall, it was easy to predict where you could "push the needle" based on your response. I landed in the green slightly to the left of the purple border about 1 square below the red. Is that where a socialist 
would show up on this graph?
I seriously doubt a strong advocate of Ayn Rand would truly land where you indicated below.
In any case, I thought politics where supposed to be off limits here. Nothing like breaking you're own rules, huh? 
There's a pretty big gulf between far-left and everyone else.
Reply #43 Thursday, August 30, 2018 9:46 PM
Lol. I’m an “advocate” Ayn Rand? What does that mean? I’m not an “objectivist” or whatever it’s called.
Reply #44 Thursday, August 30, 2018 11:00 PM
Well, this is HIS site. He can do whatever he wants here - and has proven more than once that he is willing to face the consequences. Brad may be a 'nerd' but he has my respect because he speaks his mind, something so many are unwilling or even afraid to do these days.
Second, I believe this is no longer about politics, it may only seem that way. It is literally about good vs. evil, reason vs. insanity and absolute morality (where what is good and what is bad remains unchanged) vs. moral relativism (where you - and everyone else by extension - define what is good and what is bad).
Reply #45 Saturday, September 1, 2018 2:32 AM
moral relativism
Now this something that truly pisses me off.... where people create a fake morality in their mind and try to apply it to society in general. The Politically Correct Crew, now there's a bunch of out-of-line cretins I'd like to line up and give a cat-o-nines kind of morality to for forcing their imbecilic opinions upon the World. I mean, why can't kids call their parents mum and dad? Or be told age old nursery rhymes?
And why can't I call a garden implement a hoe? It's a tool that's been around for hundreds of years, and for mine, if that's the profession they choose, then hookers need to grow a thicker skin... cos a hoe will always be a hoe to me.
However, while political correctness is damned annoying, I find things like politicians moralising over teen sexuality and changing the age of consent for girls to 12, so that paedophilia suddenly becomes legal for parasites who prefer young girls of that age.
No, the world has gone to shit when our so-called leaders start legislating to create such unthinkable laws.
There's so much more I could say on the matter, but it would just make me angry and I'd want to go bust a pollie for simply being in that profession.... couldn't say 'line of work' cos it'd be a major conflict with the truth.
Reply #47 Saturday, September 1, 2018 5:47 AM
Nope! A hoe is a long-handeled scraping tool that's pulled towards the user to remove weeds, etc. A shovel is usually a shorter handeled tool that's pushed away from the user to pick up soil, etc.
And a wooden spoon, that is awarded to somebody who's trying to have a lend of me. 
Reply #49 Saturday, September 1, 2018 9:44 AM
The one thing that can change things is when business people can show that their business is being interfered with and begin to make formal complaints to their congressmen.
I'd really encourage you to do so...particularly if you can have some techies show some correlations for laymen.
Reply #50 Saturday, September 1, 2018 11:34 AM
Actually...it's a spade that's short handled....a shovel is the long one....
Nope, a square mouth shovel has a short handle.... then there's the long handled shovel with a triangular head. A square nosed spade [no elevated sides like a shovel] has a long handle. Yup, I busted my gut using all of them when I was younger.
Also used one or two hoes as well.
Reply #51 Tuesday, December 29, 2020 7:54 PM
Minor update on this. So time has passed and he recently posted on Twitter and linked back to his article claiming that my screenshots were based on my personalized searches. This wasn't the case as others had verified.
We did a project with Google that became Stadia and Tab's blog actually came up. The Google exec actually said "his post isn't very 'googly' and they'd make a note on it." I don't know what they did but soon after that, his article stopped being on the home page of Google.
Reply #53 Wednesday, December 30, 2020 12:28 AM
Billy Connolly reckoned the desire to ever be a politician should bar you from ever being one.
I've tried those political compasses and the questions are just open enough to be interesting but vague enough to not really allow you to say or indicate what you really mean.
Personally, I've found one topic that will unite all the Left and all the Right into sitting around the campfire singing Kumbayah.
It's means-testing for welfare. The Left hate it because "it demonizes those in genuine need". The Right hate it because there's a lot of money involved in checking an applicant's means etc and it doesn't often root out the few who are just cheating the system.
Google - before I go too off-topic - I'm okay with. I use the .co.nz version, if that makes any difference to search results and marketing etc. I am slowly but surely getting sick of the echo chamberieness (do I win 2020's Best New Word On galciv3.com Forum's Award??) of the whole thing, though. Fine if what I'm looking up is non-controversial/political, boring if I am...
v
Reply #54 Wednesday, December 30, 2020 1:26 PM
Reply #55 Wednesday, December 30, 2020 1:29 PM
Reply #56 Wednesday, December 30, 2020 2:02 PM
Billy Connolly reckoned the desire to ever be a politician should bar you from ever being one.
I've tried those political compasses and the questions are just open enough to be interesting but vague enough to not really allow you to say or indicate what you really mean.
Personally, I've found one topic that will unite all the Left and all the Right into sitting around the campfire singing Kumbayah.
It's means-testing for welfare. The Left hate it because "it demonizes those in genuine need". The Right hate it because there's a lot of money involved in checking an applicant's means etc and it doesn't often root out the few who are just cheating the system.
Google - before I go too off-topic - I'm okay with. I use the .co.nz version, if that makes any difference to search results and marketing etc. I am slowly but surely getting sick of the echo chamberieness (do I win 2020's Best New Word On galciv3.com Forum's Award??) of the whole thing, though. Fine if what I'm looking up is non-controversial/political, boring if I am...
v
first it does seem the ones who are trying to take our rights away are bribing us to do so.
I have tried having a computer without a antivirus twice. That never lasts. The reason I first tried is because the firewall didn’t allow ligit free programs, or mods. Iwould like someone to remove these viruses, but it inhibits our right to make viruses. I would like free programs removed when you download them, and they don’t do anything without charging you. If you don’t pay then they will pull you out of your games to register every five minutes, but this takes away my right to rip you off through extortion.
everyone knows that bill gates made deals to share technology to learn competitors technology. Instead of joint manufacturing, walked away. When ibm hired bill gates to promote their new os/2 product. He decided to replace os/2 with his reverse engineered product os/3. Killing the operating system. How about trying to kick everyone off windows except Microsoft Windows 2000. Oh yeah let’s not forget teeming with micro sun systems to punish those trying to help out Linux. Let’s not forget bribing hardware manufacturers to not work on Linux.
im just saying Microsoft.
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Reply #41 Thursday, August 30, 2018 3:42 PM
There's a pretty big gulf between far-left and everyone else.