After we covered Google Maps Street view in our last Digg Digest, many more stories about privacy (and some funny pictures) have popped up on the Internet.
First, the silliness.
You can't see it anymore, because Google is removing Street View images due to privacy concerns
, but I found the questionable image of the man peeing on the side of the road
There. Now you can't say I didn't show you.
In fact, it prompted people to make movies out of it.
Uh yeah, I'm not sure what he was doing. Really.
But anyway, all of this Google Maps Street View madness came out at the same time that Google was slammed for privacy concerns . However, not everyone agrees. Danny Sullivan, for example, thinks that the Privacy International report sucks . He points out a number of flaws with the Privacy International report, including the fact that one of its board members is an employee of Microsoft. And so, on the heels of this announcement, we see that Google will anonymize search results after eighteen months , which should also come as a relief to some of these Privacy International guys.
It's actually cool to see what search engines know about us, even if you're not inclined to actually take advantage of Web History. Think about it. AOL knows a lot about Thelma Arnold, the 62-year-old woman whose search queries were released to the wild. If you're not using Google, that doesn't mean the search engines don't know about you.
What else? Well, Google may know about you, but what don't you know about Google? Matt Cutts lists five things, emphasizing that Google is strongly focused on search, Google is constantly making improvements that aren't noticed (to the search algorithm, but I'd extend that to say that Google does it other properties, like Google Analytics), and that there are more people at Google besides Matt, Vanessa Fox, Adam Lasnik, and Susan Moskwa -- though they work behind the scenes. (Come out, come out, wherever you are!)
And well, some people don't care that Google is everywhere. In fact, they encourage you to Googleize your life . That's right: take advantage of Gmail, Blog Search, Google Earth, YouTube, and other Google properties, and you may not need anything else.
That Googleize your life post had some nice icons and eye candy. Google Korea has come out with an animated version which is also pleasant and pretty.
And finally, that design (or perhaps Google Maps Street View, or a combination of the two) have caused the GOOG stock to hit $519 the highest it's ever been.
Well, it might not have been the design for Google Korea after all. AussieWebmaster believes that the big three search engines are xenophobic. That is, Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft appear to be afraid of foreign territory. His statement is based on the fact that US traffic seems to overpower traffic from foreign countries. Consequently, other countries are forming other search engines.
And then there's Mahalo , the new search engine by Jason Calacanis whose name sounds like it might as well be from a foreign country possibly near Hawaii. Aloha!
By the way, Ask.com didn't seem to make it on AussieWebmaster's list. My guess is that it has something to do with the fact that Ask.com's marketing campaigns are confusing users with Ask.com as Google . I'm not sure that you guys wanted that, Ask.com. But I see what the other people mean. Google representatives are far more responsive than Ask.com representatives to my knowledge and Google's emphasis is on improving the "algorithm." Am I off when I point to this blog post or perhaps this one? While I majored in computer science at school and knew what an algorithm is from my coursework, as soon as I started working in this realm, I immediately thought of Google when I heard the term Algorithm. Ask.com is just confusing me now. However, I still like the ads.
Guess it sucks if you live in the other 49 states. :)
