Whatever happened to proofreading?

Google released it's new Chrome web browser and freaked a lot of people out with the terms of service (TOS) that went along with it. Basically, the wording made it sound as if everything that was transmitted or viewed via Chrome belonged to Google, including irrevocable copyrights. From the way it was worded, it was reasonable to assume that Google would be claiming a copyright to any content the user posted to the web using Chrome.

Google has said this is absolutely not the case and that the wording in the TOS was basically copied and pasted from another Google product in error. They have said they will be correcting the language for future downloads and that the new TOS will retroactively apply to anyone who has already downloaded Chrome.

Mistakes happen, but I can't imagine that a company as large as Google didn't have a team of marketing people, then a team of lawyers, then a team of something else read over the TOS before making such a major product launch. Whatever happened to proofreading?

This points out a major problem with Internet communication. The focus these days is on immediacy, getting the information out as quickly as possible. Just because we can, however, doesn't always mean we should. Taking an extra day to have the TOS proofread would have saved Google a lot of headaches and embarrassment.

We definitely need to take a step back and embrace some of the enduring principals of print communication. In the old days, once something was put out in print, it was out there forever for all the world to scrutinize. Sure, you can easily go back and change a mistake you've made on the Internet, but odds are someone somewhere has already saved your erroneous version and about 50,000 others have probably passed it around on social networking and other sharing sites.

What some may consider outdated practices such as proofreading and following proven writing standards actually existed for a reason. The basic principals of journalism, writing and editing have fallen by the wayside in today's technologically advanced society, but they are definitely worth revisiting.