As many of the Hacker News commenters pointed out, the line between what should be public versus private is the kicker here. People don’t get angry when Google uses its homepage logo to celebrate a holiday (in fact Google also put the same reminder on its homepage, to lesser complaint) because they consider the homepage a public space. HN commenter djcapelis explained, “It’s the difference between someone coming up to you on the bus and asking you if you’ve called your father and a poster on the side of the bus asking if you’ve called your father. When you put your message in someone’s personal space, you don’t get to just say ‘eh, it’s probably only a small fraction’ because you’re specifically communicating with specific people.
— ‘Reminder: Call Dad’ Is Another Notch In Google’s Belt Of Social Fail
