Corporate Blog Makes Trouble for Google

In case anyone missed the first apology, Google is still sorry for an employee's post on a corporate blog. Her reaction to Michael Moore's "Sicko"—a suggestion that health-care companies buy Google ads to offset his accusations and burnish their reputations—has outraged bloggers and prompted two separate apologies, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Blogs are an increasingly popular strategic tool, but the incident demonstrates why topics are usually anything but controversial. The original post, on one of Google's dozens of corporate blogs, didn't state that the opinion was the author's, not the company's. When her apology didn't smooth things over, another appeared on the company's main blog. “We blew it,” says one exec. (More Google stories.)