Google: The New Microsoft? I Think Not!

 
Aug 13, 2005

by Judith Dinowitz

This article from Slashdot really shows why even reviewing the recent New York Times Article, "Relax, Bill Gates, It's Google's Turn as the Villain," would be a waste of time and space. The central argument of the article is that in Silicon Valley, Google has become the new target du jour because the company has attracted all of the best programmers, driven salaries up by 25 - 50% and caused startups to have a much harder time getting funding. Apparently, when all of those financial firms want to know why they should provide funding, and ask, "But can you do it better than Google," these startups have no idea what to say.

So by being very good at what they do, Google has made it harder. By creating a work environment that's attractive to programmers, and by paying them a decent salary, they've soured the pot for everyone else.

That's a pretty lame argument.

Here's a better comparison. Microsoft, in their bid to have a monopoly in the operating systems (Windows), desktop application (Microsoft Office, Publisher, etc.), Internet Browser (Internet Explorer) and web development platform (.NET) markets, have engaged in business practices that could be seen as shady. For example, recently Michael and I noticed that they're buying Google advertising with the keyword "ColdFusion", giving it the advertising title of "ColdFusion", in order to sell Microsoft Visual Studio and (we assume) to get developers to switch to .NET. This is misleading, and may be an issue of them illegally using Macromedia's trademark. (There was a discussion of this recently on the CF-Community List.) On the other hand, Google is building themselves up as a repository of information and a purveyor of information services. So far, I have not seen them engage in any questionable business practices.

There are many IM systems out there, many forms of email, and many competitors who provide searches. Google seems to be trying to tie all of these separate information resources together. Between Google Search, Google News Alerts, Gmail, Google Maps and now Google Desktop and Talk, they are working on becoming the service that everyone uses for information in all forms.

Is this good? Does this make Google evil? Well, if you're using Google's services, you're exposing your personal information to them and allowing them to track you via cookies. That's you on a personal level. There's also whatever you own on the Internet, as they cache just about everything (unless you tell them not to.)

Is it potentially a problem? Yes, as people on various archived mailing lists have discovered. Whatever you say is archived and accessible to anyone that wants to see. The CF-Community list on House of Fusion will be going private (to subscribers only) very soon just to deal with this.

In addition, if you have a Google cookie, every time you go to a website that is in any way related to Google, including any website that has Google ads, they know where you are. They're only saving grace is, of course, the Google Privacy Policy. Here are the highlights:

  • Google Search, the Google Toolbar, Google News and some other Google services don't require personal information.
  • Some of their services do require you to register for an account, and Google will ask you for some personal information when you register. In some cases, they may ask for credit card information.
  • Google collects limited non-personally identifying information that your browser makes available whenever you visit a website. This includes your IP address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your query and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser. They state that they use this information to operate, develop and improve their services.
  • They set a cookie on your system when you first visit Google, and thereafter they may use that cookie to track the patterns of how you search. You can, of course, refuse to set a cookie, but then some of their services may not work.
  • They do not rent or sell your personal information unless they have your consent. There are two other cases in which they'll give information: Either they have a deal with a third-party company who is processing that information, and is also sworn to confidentiality, or they are providing it for legal reasons. For more information, check their privacy policy.
  • They may provide that information among all of their services to make the Google user experience more integrated.

Yes, Google is collecting information. Yes, Google is providing information. Yes, Google is doing better at providing that information than anyone else. Yes, yes and yes. And yes, you may or may not like Google Talk (which is still an early beta). But is Google evil?

No.

What's evil is mainstream media looking to sensationalize "nothing" to sell newspapers.

Relax, Bill Gates; It's Google's Turn as the Villain (New York Times, August 24, 2005)

Google's Turn to be the Villain (Slashdot, August 24, 2005)

The AM Agg: gTalk, Ruby, And Robertson's a Nut (Joe Rinehart, August 25, 2005)

NY Times Article: Relax, Bill Gates; It's Google's Turn as the Villain (Basement.org, August 24, 2005)

Straight Up Google Hating (FlashApe, August 24, 2005)

Google is the New Evil Empire? (Vince Bonfanti's Weblog, August 24, 2005)

Google's Privacy Policy

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