I mean, it's OK if management have political views, as long as those views don't influence search results.
As long as the experimental process is rigorous and the people are incentivised to use the right metric (and the metric isn't politically biased), then it should be fine.
However, upon making that argument I find myself concerned at the possibility that Google's corporate interests (and perhaps some political interests) may shape which questions get asked, and thus the direction the service takes.
It's quite analagous to Chomsky's views of news organisations in Manufacturing Consent.
As long as the experimental process is rigorous and the people are incentivised to use the right metric (and the metric isn't politically biased), then it should be fine.
However, upon making that argument I find myself concerned at the possibility that Google's corporate interests (and perhaps some political interests) may shape which questions get asked, and thus the direction the service takes.
It's quite analagous to Chomsky's views of news organisations in Manufacturing Consent.