Google is the company whose corporate culture became associated with the motto “Don’t Be Evil.” The phrase appeared prominently in Google’s 2004 initial public offering prospectus, where founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin presented it as a principle for balancing business decisions with broader responsibility.
The motto became part of Google’s public identity alongside ideas such as making information universally accessible and separating search results from advertising. It was often described as an unofficial slogan rather than the company’s formal mission statement.
The phrase is sometimes incorrectly remembered as “Do No Evil.” Another important distinction is that “Don’t Be Evil” was Google’s former motto. After the 2015 creation of Alphabet, Alphabet’s code of conduct emphasized “Do the right thing,” and Google removed the phrase from the preface of its code in 2018, though it retained a final reference.
Because the motto was strongly tied to Google’s early culture, it remains the canonical answer even though its formal status has changed.