[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #59519: Reconsider including Google branding and product in WordPress core (Google Fonts)

[WordPress Trac]

#59519: Reconsider including Google branding and product in WordPress core (Google
Fonts)
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 Reporter:  johnstonphilip   |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  feature request  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal           |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  General          |    Version:  trunk
 Severity:  normal           |   Keywords:
  Focuses:  sustainability   |
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 In this [https://github.com/WordPress/gutenberg/issues/53307 Gutenberg
 Github issue], a Google Fonts integration is being added directly to
 WordPress core.

 I know the great work being done is with the best of intentions: to help
 streamline things for users.

 However, despite copying the font from Google Fonts, including this Google
 integration in WordPress core has a few problems.

 - It is a "vote of confidence" in Google by the WordPress project
 - It's free advertising for a brand in WordPress core
 - It opens up future political problems for WordPress leadership to deal
 with


 Are we willing to say that the WordPress project is giving a "vote of
 confidence" for Google, the brand? Are we willing to provide free
 marketing for Google in this way?

 Furthermore, any other brands we might add to WordPress core in the future
 would also be getting that same "vote of confidence" from the WordPress
 project. Are we also willing to do it for them?

 If so, how are we deciding who gets these "votes of confidence"? Is there
 a process a brand should go through to earn this vote of confidence? What
 steps should they take? When do we/they know it's enough?

 If we add this Google integration by default in WordPress core, it opens
 up a bunch of problems we can avoid. WordPress has a plugin interface for
 this exact type of thing. Why not use it? This could surely be made into a
 plugin, right?

 So my request here is to reconsider adding a Google Fonts integration to
 WordPress core itself, and allowing it to be a plugin instead.

 While I believe that manually uploading fonts is good enough, if a core
 integration with an outside font API is required, I would propose that it
 should use Openverse. This has already been done with the Media Library.


 Additionally, (and this is somewhat beside the main point) but Google,
 specifically, doesn't have a great track record for keeping its products
 alive. The number of products killed by Google is astounding:
 https://killedbygoogle.com/

 They also **just** sold their domains service to Squarespace, a direct
 competitor to the WordPress project.

 In my opinion, these are reasons enough to be wary of adding Google
 products and branding directly to WordPress core.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/59519>
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