Does Google own a white cat, and do their employees take turns sitting in the big chair stroking it, while saying “ah <insert name here> we’ve been expecting you?”
I can’t help but post about how things have changed at Google. I have been around since before google, and have witnessed it from birth as a brilliant new search interpretation engine, to its current form, of being a disgusting corporate piece of scum,made all the more worse by them attempting to hang on to their ‘don’t be evil’ motto. At a time when Larry Page and Sergey Brin issued statement of
Google users trust our systems to help them with important decisions: medical, financial and many others. Our search results are the best we know how to produce. They are unbiased and objective, and we do not accept payment for them or for inclusion or more frequent updating. We also display advertising, which we work hard to make relevant, and we label it clearly. This is similar to a well-run newspaper, where the advertisements are clear and the articles are not influenced by the advertisers’ payments. We believe it is important for everyone to have access to the best information and research, not only to the information people pay for you to see.
How ridiculous that statement now appears, and how much more saddening that they STILL claim it to me a true mantra. After the recent court cases, of them consorting with pharmacy companies to illegally sell drugs in the US $500M ‘agreement to pay’ for that baby.
We had the LIES to the UK government aboutGoogle hacking UK private networks and stealing data where first they lied to everyone, THEN Google lied to the UK government, then they agreed to delete the data, but decided not to, only for us to discover that FAR from the data being an accident, they actually deliberately hacked users and grabbed the data. Now the UK government has re-opened the investigation, and lo and behold, the guy they are now dealing with at Google is the very same guy who PREVIOUSLY worked for the UK government information commissioners office who dealt with the problem in the first place. strange co-incidence that originally they were not even fined fro the breach 😉
The ICO are now looking nto this again, and are now working Europe wide with the Article 29 working party and the Gpen network. this is likely to see google fined heavily although if they are not open enough about the privacy issues that are now patently obvious to a man of the visual capabilities or Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder, they the EU will simply stop google operating inside its borders! A bit harsh you may say, BUT.. this is in direct breach of the European Union Bill of Human Rights, and THIS piece of legislation is at the very core of EU belief. the rights of EU citizens are more important than ANYTHING, in the eyes of the EU. Googles browser hacking case where again they were forced to shell out $20.5M sums up the fact that for Google, hacking in order to gain an advantage is par for the course, be it safari, internet explorer, or simply going into peoples home computer networks and stealing their personal data!
laughably the following system is what Google are now actively doing. It is a real nasty system Google have running at the moment, and it goes like this
1. involve social signals especially google owned property, in the algorithm
2. leak this out
3. encourage people to get social signals using Google systems
4. force people to get google accounts to leave feedback etc.
5. mwha mwha mwha.. ‘all your search terms are belong to us’.
What I am saying is that Google want people to use Google systems (signed in accounts of ANY type) as that way they claim to be ‘protecting’ the privacy of that user as they will no longer provide search data to the servers, i.e they block you from knowing the search terms used to get to your site.
THIS is why Google are doing this, they want to completely block search term referral so that you the business owner are working blind. It is little short of criminal and ironic to the ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM, that they are claiming to be doing this to protect the privacy of google users. while at the same time hacking the known world INTENTIONALLY.
Google are becoming bottom feeders guys, they abandoned their ‘don’t be evil, do no evil’ mantra a long time ago. Now they are no different to any bond villain that want world domination at any priceand their behaviour of late shows this to be the case. It is easier to sign yourself out of Guantanamo bay than sign yourself out of a Google account, as no matter what you do, they will always find a way of tracking you.
They can say what they like, and do as much good work as they like, but as my old grandmother used to say “actions speak louder than words”
I would be interested to hear your thoughts on my rant 😀
I think the fact that the ICO member who dealt with the original privacy breach case now works for google gives you insight into what is going on. I wonder how big the brown envelope google gave him was….I think google are long overdue a fine running into the hundreds of millions. And that’s in ££££ not those peanuts dollars.
How can you suggest such a thing? I mean to say the job offer to the head of the investigating team at the ICo was purely co-incidental 😀
The EU has immense power to fine google, up to a maximum of 5% of its turnover in fact. I hope they do so and send a shudder down the spines of the shareholders, because currently Google is a rabid dog, out of control.
90% of my income is generated as a direct result of being found on google.
They can have all the data they want as long as it benefits me.
Its only human nature to be greedy and want world domination and i dont think anyone was naive enough to believe in the google motto in the first place.
I have become increasingly despondent with Google over the past 2 years. Instead of concentrating on providing great products (search, gmail, android to name but a few), they seem to be exploting their monopolised position in the search marketplace. The amount of space that their adwords programme has taken up on the initial search results screen over time demonstrates how their grab for cash. They yesterday I saw this – http://bit.ly/QckEc8 – The advent of the sponsored comparison link. “No Compare” just google it. At least the Opera singer wont be on TV in a couple of years :>
Unfortunately for UK businesses Google are the only game in town with around 90% of the UK using them as their preferred search engine. I realise that you have to pay the piper and there is no such thing as a free lunch blah blah blah, but I wish that I didn’t have to pay as much. I believe that people search with Google as they have provided the best independent results, however you have to question their independence and with that how much you can trust them.
@Locksmith, I hear what you say, but not having referral data will become more important as search migrates to mobile.
@JonJones Google are out to ensure that evcery search results in a google purchase, or rather a purchase from Google’s sales partners where Google own.
Shall I let you into a secret about that Google advert? it overrides the adblocking software 😉
Unbelievable, whatever happened to “don’t be evil” ?
“don’t be evil” was #1 for years, it appears a new Google update called “Shareholder satisfaction 1.0” was released, and “don’t be evil” got a 100 penalty. Apparently it was a manual action taken under the webmaster guidelines of “don’t show one thing to Google and a different thing to everyone else 😀