[ErikBjare]

Since when is Google a he? Perhaps it is some quirk of your language that makes the direct translation take masculine form?

Edit: Sorry if this came off as rude, was not intended.

[tomp]

Instead of just criticising, maybe you could suggest how parent should improve? I'm always very confused about what personal pronoun to use for organisations or companies.

[ErikBjare]

Not criticizing, first I was confused then I realized it was likely to be a side-effect of being a native speaker of German or another language. Sorry if it came out wrong.

[masklinn]

The singular impersonal "it" when talking about Google as a corporate entity (its component personnel would likely be "Googlers"). So "Google pays its taxes" and "Google doesn't pay its taxes".

[JonnieCache]

It's standard in british english to refer to all companies/coporate entities/groups as "they." Personally I enjoy the moral implications of this.

[tomp]

Isn't "they" used sometimes as well? At least it's frequently used for "police"...

[Symmetry]

You would use "they" to refer to the class of people who are police but "it" to refer to organizations like a police department.

[benihana]

>Interestingly, here in Belgium

This clued me in as to why someone might call google 'he.'