FOG – Fear Of Google. One who fears Google, you could say, is a FOGger.
With me, I think it’s a love/hate thing – I love Google for the toys and pretty goodies they have available for my Personalized Homepage (I *refuse* to call it iGoogle, dammit!) and for their very handy Calendar, but at the same time hate them for their many “indiscretions.”
*cough* Can you say profiling? I thought you could … *cough*
Robert Scoble had a really good article posted yesterday about Google — especially covering their recent acquisition of FeedBurner for $100m. I dunno ’bout you lot, but that one really bothers me. I use and depend on FeedBurner for several of my hobby sites, and am not happy about the fact that I may soon need to find a suitable replacement. (if such a thing even exists!)
Geek News Central posted a very heated objection, and while I whole-heartedly agree, what really stuck me was this: “My RSS feed is SACRED and I will NEVER share the SUBSCRIBER data with ANYONE, those that are using FeedBurner will never be able to claim that!”
He’s right, and to be perfectly honest, once Google starts making changes I cannot honestly tell anyone that their subscriptions are safe — whether my site or any other using the FeedBurner service. What’s more, what will happen with the FeedVertising? I imagine that Google will quickly swap that out first and foremost with AdSense ads. I have an AdSense account, but I’ve found that I’ve had much better luck using — well, pretty much anything else!
However, something I thought Mr. Scoble had posted put forth a decent perspective on this whole Google thing: “I saw lots of reactions to Feedburner’s purchase by Google decrying that Google will know what feeds they are subscribed to. I think Google has to be very transparent, very warm, and very open when it comes to privacy and the data it’s collecting on all of us and to many of us it’s coming across as closed, cold, and opaque. That leads to bad PR. Bad PR — if continued unabated — leads to government action. Just ask my friends at Microsoft.”
Indeed.
Peter
It’s certainly a bit scary the power that Google is gaining, and backlash appears to be brewing. While Google has given us little indication thus far that they are using all the information they have on us for anything less than non-evil purposes, It’s becoming more and more difficult to trust that this will continue.
Even with total transparency and warm openness (an interesting term), as Mr Scoble suggests, I’m getting paranoid about using Google’s services (which is unfortunate, because so many of them are really great).
I think that over the next year or so, this will be an interesting topic to watch.
Ben
Surely unless one is breaking the law then you have nothing to worry about? Sure they can log your search patterns, interests and your readers interests. But in the long run won’t that lead to more personalized ads, content and social surfing?
Although one suspects once the Big G has bought all possible data sources, then I predict they’ll just buy people… put them in a room and watch them surf the internet. In fact this isn’t about data. Google employees are just sick voyeurs who enjoy watching…. all of us…. all the time…. every day…. evening now… /quit
Nicki
LOL Ben, if Google is the big voyeuristic pervert, what does that make those of us who use its services? Exhibitionists? ;)
Mara
I agree with the majority of the comments to that Geek News Central post (and even someone from the Geek News Central staff posting with the same viewpoint).
This was my favorite comment:
http://www.geeknewscentral.com/archives/007047.html#comment-200882
That and the one who called the OP a “whiny little hypocrite” because the guy has a Yahoo widget (spyware?).
It already happens online everywhere. If you don’t use Google’s free services, there’s nothing to be all hyper about. Profiling or not, their data collection methods are what MAKE Google the #1 search engine.
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