If you publicly commit to something, taking down the written text does not constitute a de-commitment. Violating a prior commitment is unethical regardless of whether the text of the commitment is still on your website.
(Not that there’s any mechanism to hold Google to its commitments, or that these commitments ever meant anything—Google was always going to do whatever it wanted anyway.)
Which shows that “commitments” without any sort of punishment are worth basically nothing. They can all just be silently deleted from your website without generating significant backlash.
There is also a more general point about humans: People can’t really “commit” to doing something. You can’t force your future self to do anything. Our present self treats past “commitments” as recommendations at best.
If you publicly commit to something, taking down the written text does not constitute a de-commitment. Violating a prior commitment is unethical regardless of whether the text of the commitment is still on your website.
(Not that there’s any mechanism to hold Google to its commitments, or that these commitments ever meant anything—Google was always going to do whatever it wanted anyway.)
Which shows that “commitments” without any sort of punishment are worth basically nothing. They can all just be silently deleted from your website without generating significant backlash.
There is also a more general point about humans: People can’t really “commit” to doing something. You can’t force your future self to do anything. Our present self treats past “commitments” as recommendations at best.