Google gone bad?

Factual Questions
1

I was made aware at a friends weblog about this site.

It basically says that Google, my beloved seach engine, has become a corpate monster. Now, I have a hard time believing it, especially the NSA connection, but still, it might be true.

So, should I start using Yahoo! again?

Thanks,

Martijn

2

Wooo!! Wait a minute, McDonalds hired someone that once worked for the post office down the street! Maybe eventually all our mail will come with an option of fries! Face it, people change jobs. This does not mean that Google is run by the NSA.

The other complaints are based on privacy issues. If you have issues with privacy, you should learn how to control your cookies. Get a decent browser like Opera, and be happy. Delete all cookies at the end of a session, and Google can give you another clean record.

What, you didn’t know that Google was a corporate monster? What is even funnier is that you suggest going to Yahoo to get away from it! If a site has to keep up-to-date info on 3,083,324,652 web pages, chances are this is not done by some Linux fan in a garage.

Finally, what is with the pagerank crap? It is just common sense to put the links most used first. There might be some reason why no one clicks on the 1962 goat porn site, so why give it the chance to pop up #1 when it happens to contain some key words?

3

There is a ‘privacy scare’ movement going around, building speed. About all it’s doing is scaring people.

I don’t want the privacy that they peddle. I like instant credit, thorough searches and access to tons of info and people.

Privacy = paranoia.

4

Some background on the dispute:

5

Hush hush, no need to get upset.

Thanks for the input. I was not suggesting going to Yahoo, I merely listed it as one alternative amoung many, one that I happened to use before google came along.

I agree with you, Phage about people changing jobs and the lack of meaning therein. As I said, I like Google (and I am perfectly able to control my cookies in any browser, should I wish to do so, thank you), but that does not mean I can’t have a question about what is behind the frontpage of a search engine, does it?

The privacy scare point is taken, Philster and I was inclined to think the same about google-watch, but I wondered what other people thought.

that’s all.

6

Thanks, SmackFu. I’ll definitively check out the link.