On Thu, 11 May 2006 17:22:59 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
> __/ [ wd ] on Thursday 11 May 2006 16:39 \__
> If Google unleash and publish too much information as such, privacy will
> (at some point) become a concern. On a _national level_, privacy has
> /already/ been compromised. For example, you could find something out
> about military-related research over in North Korea. Thinking further:
> what if companies began to 'poison' the figures? Could companies run a bot
> to query for terms that make them seem more favourable in these figures.
> Could that be considered 'Trend spamming'?
Google and privacy is already a huge concern.
The figures could be skewed easily. For example, if one political party
wants to make it look like there is a larger buzz about their candidate.
There is one political party here that would work that one to death in the
media.
>> AJAXy, Web2.0, SEO-friendly without giving out too much info. Better
>> interface than inventory.overture.com. Throw some Google Maps in there.
>> "Click on the map to see what people search for in that city/country" --
>> and then feed them the clouds.
>
>
> Yes, all-round integration will be nice. It has already been done in other
> domains of Google. They are astroturfing, I guess -- using a strength in
> one domain to compliment another. Does this remind you of a certain other
> company in the north-west? Wal-mart as well, by the way. Just about any
> giant when you come to think of it...
They want data. TIA was too much for the American public to handle so
the government supposedly abandoned it. Google makes a good worldwide
substitute that many people (too many people) trust.
Take the Google cookie (tracking on user-end), Gdrive (via G desktop), G
toolbar (tracking on user-end again), Google analytics (tracking on the
server-end), Gmail (archive all email), G chat (archive all chat), Orkut
(determine social relationships, personal info, and other data), G pay
(financial data), Google Net/wireless (monitor traffic), Writely (archive
files), Google phone (possibly coming, and which would allow GPS tracking,
and more), etc. Google already has Big Brother capability.
Put all of that together with the Patriot Act, or forget laws
altogether (think AT&T). Someday Google will not be run by two idealistic
kids from Stanford. It's not going to be pleasant. As hinted by the
TOS, Google doesn't erase that data. Search engines, especially Google,
are a government's wet dream. On a side note, I suspect there will be a
growing movement for countries to build their own search engines to
prevent data gathering on their citizens by the US. But it will be the
same problem, different flavor.
Gathering and organizing all of the world's knowledge, like some modern
day Alexandria, is not evil. Gathering and organizing people's personal
data with this kind of extreme cunning is evil. Knowledge is power, and
knowledge about people is power over those people. Google is not
Alexandria; Google is TIA.
This is not just a search engine anymore. Give it a few more years and
people will not be so happy about Google anymore.
Or maybe the majority of the public won't care. Give them AdSense (bread)
and free toys (circuses) to play with and people will ignore the larger
picture.
I agree Google is like the other two big companies mentioned, except
probably much worse in the long run.
>> It would be popular. Let people feed the cloud-data into their blogs
>> with XML/maps. Bloggers could tag posts with keywords (like Technorati)
>> and then be taken to your page showing which regions people search for
>> that term from, and the different layers of keyword clouds (more page
>> views for you). Bloggers would find creative uses for the data. When
>> you buy Digg.com you could integrate it with that (keywords,
>> location/maps, search data, etc.).
>
>
> Digg? Again?
Half-joking about Digg. If I were Google I would grab it.
>> Bloggers will all be talking about it. You will make a fortune with the
>> extra page views on the AdSense. People would spend hours on the SERPs,
>> and run back and forth between your different services.
>
>
> I think you have been hit by the hype. You seriously need some sleep or a
> major cutdown in terms of coffee.
Hype? I'm not a fan of Google, Web 2.0, etc. Just predicting the
future ;)
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