What burns me about Google...

[alexpgp]

Actually, I suppose one should vent one's spleen with those who stand for Google's behavior with regard to the display of advertising.

I just opened ImgBurn, a fine piece of software that helps create and burn disk ISO files. The program advised me of a new version, and vectored me to the publisher's web site. The site is littered with Google ads, one of which is titled "ISO Burner Software" with a large "Download Now" button beneath it. It is the only such button on the page. I absent-mindedly clicked on the button and was taken to the web site of a competing product.

Basically the same thing happens with GMail, too. If any of my clients use GMail to open messages I've sent them, they are bombarded by ads from my competitors. If any of my freelancers use GMail to open messages I've sent them, they are bombarded by ads from my competitors.

People who find my page on LinkedIn, where I speak of translation and interpretation services, are bombarded by ads from my competitors.

Fortunately, it would appear most such ads are utterly ignored (unless, as in the case described at the top of this post, such ads are mistaken for content).

Cheers...

Comments

[daphnis.livejournal.com]

There was a quite intensive gander at the behaviors of Google, AOL, Yahoo and so on either last night or Thursday night on the CNBC channel, with David Faber (financial reporter) digging into how much data-mining and purveying-to-others is going on. Google appears to admit no legal reasons why they cannot both claim ownership of and dissemination rights for ANYTHING which passes through their gateways. That includes gmail customers as well as searchers, innocent communiques as well as possibly inimical ones. Every Googled search for info ~ places, maps, medical, legal, whatever ~ is logged and data-filed under the inquirer's names, both online and off, and Google complies with virtually every request for information about users from even quasi-legal agencies.

My conclusion re Google and such like? DON'T use them if you can find the info elsewhere . . . . . but then, I'm a reactionary Old Biddy who likes books because they don't talk back ;-)

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm not sure Google is going to assert intellectual property rights to people's email anytime soon, but the rest of what you report is right on the money. There's an interesting article over at The Register (http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/31/the_out_of_control_decade/) about what the author calls the "out of control" decade (in the sense of things being no longer under one's control). He mentions Google and their vast data collection/analysis/etc. apparatus, but also points out that Apple seems to be spearheading a movement to sell hardware (iPods, iPhones) that may only be used for "Apple approved" purposes (i.e., to run "apps" downloaded from Apple). The article ends with a dystopian look at the future that I find... optimistic.

Thanks for the note!

Cheers...