I’m sorry, but I’m just not a big fan of Google. I can’t put my finger on an exact reason (other than possible homophobia regarding AdSense). Maybe it’s that I see Google as the new Microsoft, i.e. dominating the tech world. Call me cynical, but I just don’t believe their "do no evil" pledge.
Now I see they’re buying Feedburner which up until now has been a great service I use for my blog feed.
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They will not stop until they have screwed up everything on the net;)
I have never trusted Google. They are just weird. I don’t have a problem with Microsoft because they are open with the fact that they are wanting to dominate the world; Google does it underhandedly and I just can’t apprecaite that.
I’m actually a fan of Google and use several of their products; however, it’s not just Google doing this. If you were to do look wider, you’ll see a few companies buying like crazy. The scariest is Rupert Murdock trying to buy Wall Street Journal. I’ve kept warning people that we are heading into another monopoly situation like that of the 70’s when the government had to step in and break up companies because there was no true competition in our “capitalist” society.
Like it or not, google is changing the way people use the internet the same way microsoft changed the way that people use computers.
The thing is that they are still a company, and what companies do is make money. Google spends a lot of time and resources on people coming up with neat ideas that make no money. This latest push of acquiring all these media services is obviously a drive to have more big moneymakers than just adsense.
Also, consider this: Their corporate motto is “Do no evil” but they also have a stated goal of indexing every piece of information on the internet. Think about it.
Its amazing how Google has taken over and rules the web. I mean just a few short years back, who had ever heard of it? I wonder what their original financial backer thought of those guys. “So let me get this right, you kids think you can create a web page with nothing on it but a search box ? Get out of my bank.
I stopped using google a long time ago for cultural and political reasons. I dont like the way google tends to dominate the world information distribution. This is not a neutral, democratic service but it tends to colour information according to advertising. I really hate the way google (and others) make their way into your internet browser. To keep them away from the menu bar is like stopping a vacuum cleaner sales man from pushing down your door.
I dont appreciate the USA-centricity of google.
The french man Jean-Noël Jeanneney has a deep and intelligent critique of google in his book : Google and the myth of universal knowledge: a view from Europe.
Google is yet anohther seemingly liberal, free and intelligent enterprice that tends to invert totally in its real effect and consequenses.
[...] Every time another one of these acquisitions occur, I feel I should just surrender to the Google juggernaut. Then I remember that there is a lot of little things I don’t like about Google’s products: Gmail is strictly a personal preference regardless of how ‘innovative’ people want to call it, Picasa is inferior to Flickr and many other start-ups, Blogger just plain sucks, the new Bloglines Beta beats Google Reader hands down, and there is a lack of personalization options at iGoogle IMHO. [...]