Midweek e-mail catch-up, Techie Badness edition.
It's probably my own fault for banging on in the past about a search engine I choose not to use, but some of you have been enquiring about Google asking for your geographical location when using the service, and finding it all a bit suspect/intrusive.
Well...yeah.
Dave Winer's piece about the Big G tailoring search results according to users' "social networks" (http://www.scripting.com/stories/2010/02/03/googlesTwowaySearchIsGoodF.html#p1) just flashed up on BoingBoing and seems related to this, but it's also dependent upon the info you provide/d on your Google profile. (Winer seems to like and approve of this feature.)
In the end, it's your information, and what you choose to do with it is your own responsibility. If you followed an e-mail redirect to anti_gravitas in search of specific guidance, then that's pretty much it. You can hit the "fuck you google" tag on this entry for some general background on the shakiness and hypocrisy of their "Do No Evil" company motto, but apart from observing some fairly predictable hoofing about on the Chrome OS front (http://community.livejournal.com/anti_gravitas/389490.html?thread=651122#t651122), I find I have less and less to say about their practices these days.
Lemmings will be lemmings...
Well...yeah.
Dave Winer's piece about the Big G tailoring search results according to users' "social networks" (http://www.scripting.com/stories/2010/02/03/googlesTwowaySearchIsGoodF.html#p1) just flashed up on BoingBoing and seems related to this, but it's also dependent upon the info you provide/d on your Google profile. (Winer seems to like and approve of this feature.)
In the end, it's your information, and what you choose to do with it is your own responsibility. If you followed an e-mail redirect to anti_gravitas in search of specific guidance, then that's pretty much it. You can hit the "fuck you google" tag on this entry for some general background on the shakiness and hypocrisy of their "Do No Evil" company motto, but apart from observing some fairly predictable hoofing about on the Chrome OS front (http://community.livejournal.com/anti_gravitas/389490.html?thread=651122#t651122), I find I have less and less to say about their practices these days.
Lemmings will be lemmings...