Google is having a very hard time explaining what it was thinking as it scrapped data from a rival’s database. But that is not surprising because Google might be getting a barrage of calls from all major media houses in the world to get some explanations on the happenings and so it has to explain it. Getting calls is one thing but the scary part for Google’s always arrogant PR machine is that 90% of those calling already believed the Mocality story. Spinning that around might be very hard because few of the blogs and media houses would have the guts to say “our initial reporting was wrong. Google did not commit this.”

What really happened.
Accusations surfaced from Mocality, a Company that provides a directory of businesses, that Google had improperly obtained its customer database, attempted to steal its customers, and misrepresented its relationship with Mocality.

We've since learned from a source close to Google that a small team of people were involved in the improper behavior, but that the company's not sure whether they are official Google employees, vendors, or partners. Our source tells us that while there is no existing policy on how to deal with the issue — it hasn't happened to Google before — the company plans to fully investigate the matter and review its protocols. They stressed that it's a very specific issue in one local office, and that the behavior was not authorized by Google — our source says that "as a company, Google was not aware of it," and that the action was "not condoned."

Our source says that Google is in close talks with Mocality over what happened, and that it will do "whatever needs to be done to make it right."

Earlier today, Google's Nelson Mattos, Vice-President for Product and Engineering, released an official statement on Google+ confirming Mocality's accusations, and says that it is "mortified" about the behavior, and that it's still investigating how it happened. We'll keep close tabs on this story, and let you know when Google updates us on its investigation.
Source: http://www.theverge.com/...ions-says-its-mortified

Wazuans whats you take on this.

You must have seen like a hundred threads on wazua relating to this topic

the problem with alai and his ilk is that they don't understand the internet. The problem is not scraping the content, the problem is a legal one of misrepresentation. Google called fellows and lied that they were working with Mocality.

Scraping content is the norm online. Even yahoo front page is scraped. So tell alai to stop hating so much on mocality and concentrate on the real problem.