Is Google smart?

The answer is a resounding YES. They employ the smartest people in the world. It is almost a prerequisite for hiring a new Google employee. The important points to make are that (a) they can afford to employ the smartest people and (2) they think of the wider issues, the long term stuff, the global issues and work back from there.

Their software is the best. You need the best engineers for that. Sure, things go wrong but that is human nature.

How do you measure smartness in this instance? Simple. Google is a business. The more profit they make the better. You measure them by their profit margin.

Actually it goes deeper than that, at 2011. This is because there is no regulation of the internet. Google are the law. They police copyright infringements, for example. This would normally be carried out by an independent, non-profit making body. But Google take it upon themselves to police copyright.

They have an altruistic element to their operation. This is because they are so big they are in constant danger of falling foul of anti-competition laws. They have to be generous to counter that threat.

The world is massively imperfect so that no matter how smart you are you are still going to do silly things.