Anything But Coffee

So call me paranoid but I think Google is just going to far with their information gathering.

For those who don’t know, Google announced on their blog last week on December 4th, 2009 they are now offering personalized search results for everyone who uses Google.

What’s so special about personalized search results? Well here’s a little history for those who may not know. Every search you do on Google is documented and tracked. Up until now your information was only stored if you chose not to opt-out of this program by turning off your search history in your Google preferences. Not many people knew of this. Google “claims” they only use your stored information as a metric to be able to return to you more relevant results based off of your search history.

Now, as of their announcement, Google is storing your information whether you want them to or not. You have no option to opt-out of this information tracking system anymore, which I feel is a violation of personal privacy.

How and Why is Google Tracking Me?

How are they doing this you may ask? Well that’s a great question.

Every time you visit Google they install an anonymous cookie on your computer which will track your search history. Every time you you search anything on Google it will now return websites they feel are more relevant to what you are looking for based off of the past 180 days of your search history.

The only way to prevent this from happening is to actually disable cookies being allowed on your computer. This sounds ok but realize that a large portion of websites wont work correctly if you don’t allow cookies to be installed.

Cookies them self are not bad, although some have been flagged as “spyware” by some anti-virus software, it is a fact of life on the internet. But Google still should give you the option to allow them being installed on your system or not, especially since it will 100% affect your experience with using Google.

The idea of personalized search results isn’t really a bad thing. I’m all for getting the right answers to the questions you are asking;  it’s more the way they are tracking your information that makes me uneasy.

Google, for the past 10 years, has been documenting search history and internet browsing habits of everyone in the country. When you make a Google account; or an account for any Google owned property such as Gmail, Blogger, Google Health, YouTube etc… you now have to give them your cell phone number for SMS verification and to activate your account. They say this is for fighting spam but it’s possible there are other reasons behind this.

The Google / White House Connection

Think about it for a minute. Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the U.S. Government has mandated that all cell phones have built in GPS tracking added to them. Most every cell phone in this country now has GPS installed on them and assigned its own unique serial number. As long as people have their cell phones on, the devices continuously send signals to cell phone towers. Cell phone company operators and government agencies have the ability to know exactly where each cell phone user is at all times, as long as their cell phones are on.

There are even rumors that the government has mandated that even if the cell phone is turned off, it still sends out a reserve signal to the GPS system so people can still be tracked. Even further, there are rumors that the cell phone can act as a monitoring device where, through the speakers and mic, the government is able to listen in anytime they want. I really don’t know if that last one is true but if you are worried then its best to physically remove your battery from your phone if you ever want to tell any secrets.

Google Health is another Google product to be concerned with. Google Health, says Google is a place to “store your information securely and privately, but you always control how it’s used. We will never sell your data. You are in control.” This sounds good because people always want access to their personal and confidential medical records but here is one example of how electronic health records could have potentially life threatening results. Also, notice the terminology. They promise not to sell your data but make no mention of sharing your information with any government agency. By actively participating in the voluntary use of Google’s products you agree to their terms and conditions which may or may not state how they choose to use your information for their information gathering and/or sharing.

Now put these three things together. Google is able to associate your cell phone number with your online profiles across multiple websites, your search history, your medical records  and even pinpoint where exactly you are at any given minute of the day.

Why does a search engine need to know this information about it’s users?

Well let’s not forget, Google is very friendly with the current White House administration. President Obama actually appointed former Google Public Policy Chief Andrew McLaughlin as the White House Deputy Chief Technology Officer. It’s a fairly safe bet that Mr. McLaughlin still stays in touch with some friends at Google and is a key person to know the inner workings of Googles search history database.

Considering Google dominates the search industry with owning 70% search market share, could Google be gathering information for the government about its citizens as a way for federal agencies to side-step privacy laws?

We probably will never know but like it or not, there seems to be no end in sight for Google’s hunger for information.

Randy Home Google, Personalzied Search

Today I’m going to be talking a little about the  new operating system coming out from Google called Google Chrome OS. It’s been a while since I last wrote something, so considering Im bored at work doing nothing I guess now would be as best time as any.

So first off why do we need a new operating system anyway. With the 3 major ones out there, Windows, Mac OS and Linux everything is covered so what else do we need?

Well leave it to Google in their traditional “I want to rule the world” mentality; they feel the need to introduce another product that they can help saturate the market with all their Google Goodness. You can read the official release about Google Chrome OS here but let me just save you some time, it’s the same as every other operating system out there. The only difference is that it seems to be leaning more towards the “cloud” style of computing.

Basically your computer would just consist of the usual keyboard, mouse, speakers and monitor but wouldnt really need a tower or CPU. It would just be connected to the internet and you would accesses everything via a browser style just like you surf the net now.

You would log into your secured “hard drive or server” and all your files, pictures, videos, etc… would be available to you. Just think of it as a photobucket for your entire computer.

Benefits and Dangers of Google Chrome OS

What would the benefits of this be? Well first you wont have to worry about any long start up times for your computer to boot up. You wont have to upgrade your software or hardware with any patches to increase performance and you wont have to worry about catching any viruses and you can access your personal computer from any internet connection anywhere in the world.

The down side could be any number of things such as someone else compromising the main system with a virus, someone hacking your password, a disgruntled employee viewing your private data, stored information such as credit card and bank account numbers, a massive power outage that doesn’t allow you to access your files when you need them or the fact that there could be some clause that states anything you store on their system becomes their property. The pro’s and con’s are endless.

Not to mention the fact that Google is trying harder and harder to make all your personal data available on the internet all in the name of making your web browsing experience better.

Do you really need your private medical records stored online for someone to gain access to? Do you need your shopping history and web searching history stored online where anyone can view it and profile you to target you with spam email and malware sites? Do you need every aspect of what you do online to be evaluated by Governement officials?

Consider this. It’s a safe bet that on the Google Chrome OS Cloud system you are going to be sharing servers with a number of different people. Its just not possible to think everyone will get their own hard drive. So what happens if someone commits a crime and there is a warrent to search that specific server? Now suddenly everyone on that server will be having their persoanl rights violated just to view that other persons information.

Now of course that is an extreme, but I’m sure their isn’t any legislation in place as of yet to prevent this from happening.

I’m sure this is only the start of the battle between Google Chrome OS and the other Operating Systems out there and everyone’s ever growing concerne with online privacy. So let’s hear what you have to say? What are your feelings in regards to this type of Cloud computing?

Randy Home Cloud Computing, Google, Google Chrome OS, Online Privacy

BlogWorld Expo in Las Vegas

Hey everyone! So I just got back from the 2007 BlogWorld Expo, which was held in Las Vegas and let me tell yo, it was pretty fun. Not only did I learn a few little tidbits of information, mostly I had confirmation on things I already knew which tells me I am on the right path to running a successful and if Im lucky, a profitable blog.

All things considered this was a basic blog convention where I went and sat around listening to some people speak and hope I pick up some good ideas. But what I think was the best part of the trip was the opening night party that was held at the Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel and Casino’s own night club “The Joint!”

Picture a few hundred bloggers, geeks, Search Engine Optimization specialists and others who I still couldn’t really classify in any category, drunk off their ass thanks to the open bar and free food provided by the Hard Rock Casino. The drinks were strong and flowing. The DJ was very good and kept the music flowing.

My stay at the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino wasn’t really worth mentioning apart from the fact that this was one of the worst Casino Hotels, or any hotel I have stayed in. The parking structure was confusing, no signs saying what level you were on or direction to where the exits were. Also after you park you have to either take the stairs or the elevator down to the ground floor, walk past all the dumpsters, and the maintenance workers break room, through another outside hallway then into a side door to get into the lobby. Let’s not forget avoiding all the taxi and visitor traffic because you have to cross right through the valet area.

Once inside the lobby of the Imperial Palace you have to take another elevator just to get up into the casino, and the check in is at the front which is in accessible without having to go through all this if you park in the parking garage. Ohhh and there are a whole seperate set of elevators you have to find to jsut get to your rooms. Speaking of the rooms, those were pretty nice actually. But the Imperial Palace is in a horrible location because directly below us was a small little outside cabana club right off the Las Vegas Strip who decided to play music till 3am every night. I was on the 10th floor and it sounded like they were in my room with me. I really wouldnt recomment the Imperial Palace Casino to any one.

I gambled a little bit, won some then lost it again but hey thats the fun of Las Vegas right? As for the speakers all of them were pretty informative and gave some good ideas but the one I enjoyed the most was with Thomas Frey – Google’s Top Rated Futurist Speaker from The DaVinci Institute. His outlook on what the future of 50 years from now holds for the internet and the world in general were pretty interesting and thought provoking. Ideas of Universal commerce, and no more country boarders paint an very exciting future, at least to me.

Well hopefully everyone will enjoy what the future has in store and Ill be sharing some new things with you as the weeks pass by.

-Randy-

Randy Life, SEO Blogs, Google, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, Social Media Marketing, Social Networking