All Narfed Up photography and words by Bryan Villarin

Google is the next Microsoft.

Hate because their so big. Not because of their flaws.

Yes both have flaws, but 90% that dislike them have no real reasons for the hate. Well of course they have reasons, but those reasons are not what created their distaste.

And now I read his post. For crying out loud… Is this guy serious?! I must be missing something, because if I didn’t know better I would think he was crying about not be ranked for a stupid search term.

Perhaps I should have been crying for the year and a half that my domain name came up as a spelled wrong.

Needless to say I didn’t make it past the first paragraph.

I mean come on. From all the crying Podz does I can only conclude he is way too jealous about very trivial things. I have other thoughts, but I won’t be mean.

Perhaps someone should tell Podz that Google ranks pages with computers with no person effecting position (other to downright remove sites). As such to adjust the ranking the entire way they do things would have to be changed. First of all that would take way too long, and second of all for the most part things are perfect the way they are.

Posted by Anthony on 25 May 2005 @ 3pm

I guess I’m more talking about the article he linked to. If you read it, what’d you think about that?

Posted by Bryan on 25 May 2005 @ 7pm

Google this Google that…

What about Yahoo? What about Microsoft?

Both these companies have much more infomation (I would assume by the fact they have the same services and then some). So using the same logic as the article… Well it’s way too late.

Record calls? Well first of all Google would actually have to offer such a service. Until then however I would be much more concerned about Skype and Vonage which are actually already providing these services. After that I would be worreid about Yahoo who is moving in that direction with their Yahoo! Messenger. After that AIM… They have made statements they want to offer the same services as Skype – They however have a twist. Instead of charging a fee to call anyone with a phone they want to provide it for free…. Free or pay? I would say free is much more appealing – And Time Warner has so much infomation on people to start with.

But lets move back to the fear of Google recording EVERY thing… Now I know Google has a lot of storage – But even at a low recording quality (the article suggested that it would be recoreded in a high quality) this would create a insane amount of data to store – Date that no one may ever want to access (including the orginal person). That’s WAY too much data to just have sitting around – Especially when you don’t have the needed storage in the first place (just a assumption – but I would say a educated one).

But lass I’m not paranoid.

As far as their own version of Firefox… Who the hell cares? If they make the best browser I’m going to use that. If someone else has the best browser I’m going to use that one. I have changed frequently (well I would say 5 changes over my “online life” is a lot)… It’s not a issue.

A Google OS? I doubt it… Not to say it won’t happen but I doubt it. However this is the same as the Firefox thing… Who the hell cares? If it’s better then great… If not great… It’s another choice. Do I vaule my privacy and security? Duh. How long will it take to switch if I fear either one of the two is at risk? About 5 seconds. I may leave kicking and screaming, but I sure as hell will leave – Even if it means I’m not using the better product anymore. At least I have my privacy and security still.

I for one think it would be nice to have all my data in one place. Or rather the ability to have all my data in one place. As long as I have a HD then everything is good. I wouldn’t mind uploading my contact list to Google, and my images… My :cough: legal :cough: music. Perhaps I would keep my passwords (wait – I don’t have passwords stored on my computer) and credit card… wait… don’t have that either… Well the point is if I did I wouldn’t upload it to Google. That isn’t to say I wouldn’t trust it with Google. I however wouldn’t trust it with anyone. And not because I don’t trust the companies, but because I don’t trust their security. Hell I don’t trust my own security, but I’m less of a target.

Warez? Doing away with it? Ya… Good luck…

Google taking over the business world? Ya right… AT&T tried that… It didn’t work in their favor as they got split in two. Microsoft tried it… Although they managed to slip away it was made pretty clear the Goverment wasn’t going to take any BS from them. The FCC, FTC, and F Whatever hates not being in control. The more rules the better as far as their concerned. As such no company is going to become too big. Not because the Goverment is trying to protect the consumer, but because the Goverment wants all the control they can get… And then some…

Able to use Google’s search technology? Um… Hate to break it to who ever wrote that article… But their kind of behind the times.

Wikipedia? Why would they want such a service? Hmmm… Ads perhaps? :rollseyes:

This is where Google makes their money. Ads… They do a very good job at it too. At this point (and looking far ahead) I can’t really see Google charging service charges when they are making plenty (even for them) of money through ads that are by far the most effective, and most enjoyed (if there is such a thing with a ad) in the business.

And Microsoft… Microsoft this and that. Why do they compare the two and every possible turn? This has NOTHING to do with Microsoft. Is Microsoft in the way? Ya. But Microsoft is in the way no matter what you do with computers. This has nothing to do with Microsoft. Instead it has everything to do with anyone that happens to be in the way of Google making money.

This entire thing seems to take the obvious and then take a paranoid stance on it.

Are there things to be worried about? Sure. Is it being thrown way out of proportion? Yes.

Posted by Anthony on 25 May 2005 @ 7pm

Seriously!

I used to like google and all, so much so that i wrote a little perl
script a couple years back before travelling overseas. Basically, it
would make a small archive of the various different google logos they
like to put up.
you know, the little cutesy ones with snowmen and stuff.

Well, I get back from overseas and check out my stash, and it was
disturbing to say the least. This all may be out of context and all
since the dates arent available but here they are.
Just the more
disturbing ones are shown
http://zork.net/~spork/google/

Posted by spork on 25 May 2005 @ 9pm

Needless to say I didn’t make it past the first paragraph.

If you wouldn’t mind reading past the first paragraph, you might have a better understanding of what everyone is “crying” about here. It’s really worth the read.

Posted by MacManX on 25 May 2005 @ 11pm

Fred Langa’s take on Google and Privacy

Posted by Bryan on 26 May 2005 @ 12am

How can I get through something that I see as utter garbage? Putting my thoughts on podz (lets me strees these thoughts involve the subject, and not him beyond this one subject) everytime I reach a new area of his comments I want to bang my head on the desk.

I already addressed the first part… The second part? robots.txt – It really can’t be anymore simple. Now I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure Google follows the rules. If it doesn’t then it’s okay to be upset. But once again Google isn’t nearly the only one that does this. I would be much more worried about archive.org seeing as they don’t just store the most recent site – They have the potential to store every major version of the site, and really even minor changes.

Beta? Are you kidding me? Is he really trying to generalize that a program being in beta automatically makes it bad? But lets address this. It may say it’s beta, but if you decided if a item at Google was beta or not would you consider most of what is actually beta?…

To wrap up everything. If you don’t like Google. If you are afraid their going to steal your life away. If your highly paranoid. Don’t use Google. It’s that simple.

Knowing Podz feel about Google… IMO he is crying wolf… I simply fail to see anthing that isn’t overblown.

Posted by Anthony on 26 May 2005 @ 6am

How can I get through something that I see as utter garbage?

That’s why you’re having such a hard time understanding Podz’ stance, and similar stances, on the issue. Whether it’s garbage or not, you have to read it, otherwise you have no grounds for debate. You are completely missing most of the important points of this issue.

Posted by MacManX on 26 May 2005 @ 8am

I’m quite concerned about Google’s ubiquity and some of their tactics lately as well.

I wrote a short piece about it when they launched their My Search History here

Posted by Tom Raftery on 26 May 2005 @ 12pm

I did read it.

… Or maybe I didn’t and can read minds.

Which ever the case I know his feelings on the issues.

His fears lack any logic and/or thought.

But hey. My thoughts on the issue are complete garbage too, however my views do not come from some pissed off guy who seemingly couldn’t find something nice to say on the subject given a unlimited amount of time.

My bad.

Perhaps my views will be in tune with yours (and as such right :rollseyes:) when Google actually goes and steals my life (as has been sugested), but since that isn’t going to happen I wouldn’t hold my breath if I was you.

Posted by Anthony on 26 May 2005 @ 1pm

[...] Blogroll Dive: 5/30/05 Here are the highlights from today’s Blogroll dive: Bryan begins to fear Google. Owen begins to question whether or not blogging is an [...]

Posted by MacManX.com » Blog Archive » Blogroll Dive: 5/30/05 on 30 May 2005 @ 11am