Howard sent me an e-mail this morning asking me if I had seen the news yet that Google has announced their acquisition of Jaiku. My reaction?
AAAAAAAUUUUUGGGGGHHHHH!!!!
Yet another Google acquisition of a start-up company I like. Is there nothing Google does not or will own?
Why do I dislike Google? In simplest terms, I don’t trust them. Any company with that kind of power, money, and access to user information is dangerous. Sure they pledge to "do no evil," but who or what is going to stop them if they change their mind? Our government has shown a real reluctance in pursuing monopolies; in fact the Bush Administration almost seems to encourage them in the interest of ‘globalization.’ A more likely scenario is that Google will do continue to have breaches of private consumer information, or they’ll do things that they don’t see as evil (like buying off all the competition) but really are.
It disgusts me the way they track users too. I did some searches on Vermont before my trip, now all the Google Ads I see are about vacation packages or buying plane tickets. What if I searched for something like an@l Iube* simply for some information on a blog post I was writing? What sort of ads would I see then? Even if I sign out of Google, delete my cookies, and opt out of having my search history saved, it doesn’t seem to change the targeted advertising. That’s scary! It’s especially disturbing when you consider that they are expanding their advertising to radio and even TV.
I have never really got the buzz about Google. Sure, they put together a nice search engine, but so what? They got lucky when some stupid investors sunk an obscene amount of money into them. They used that money to buy themselves into a position of power. They’ve bought all the companies I once really loved: Picasa, Keyhole, Writely, GrandCentral, FeedBurner, YouTube, and now Jaiku.
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.
And don’t even get me started on their double-standard regarding AdSense and gay blogs.
So Google gobbles up yet another company. Is no one else concerned?
*Words distorted at Ed’s suggestion to prevent unwanted search hits.
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Did mean to get you riled up again. BTW, I double checked about AdSense payout (I re-read your Google/gay blogs posts again) and you shouldn’t have lost out on that $95. It should have rolled over and then they would pay out once you reach $100. At least that’s how I’m reading their help section.
Howard-
To be fair, when I closed my Google AdSense account, they did pay me the $95. It wasn’t the first payout I received from them, but it was the last.
Funny, I’m in the middle of writing a Google-related post about the ridiculous onslaught conservative Republicans are throwing them about the Sputnik ads.
I agree with you, though, about their software offerings… I’ve tried most of them (Blogger–been there, done that; Gmail– no big whup; Picasa– nice but I like Flickr better) and have come to the same conclusions. Still, this continual swallowing up of little startups that could is getting really repetitive, and yes, a little scary.
yes but they do offer alot to the net. I hate apple more
I HATE that they took over Jaiku. Hate it, hate it, hate it. I actually LIKED Jaiku, but damnit, Google’s got its spiders in everybody’s web, and those eggs just keep on hatchin’. It would be easy to take away a bit of Google’s control, if significant numbers would actually stop using it for search. But then you have what? Yahoo and MSN, who both support RealID? Or alternative searches, where you may or may not be able to find what you’re looking for.
To answer the question: Yeah, I’m concerned. Any suggestions on what to DO about it?
Ummm… before the Google search engine finds it (though I bet it sinisterly already has), you might want to reconsider having the phrase “anal lube” in this post. Then again, the search hits could be fun… but one can only hope that there are some Google Ads for anal lube… because you haven’t been very helpful to the poor folks who end up here searching and yearning for information about anal lube.
Oh, and yes it is disturbing that Google is buying everything.
Anal lube.
I always figure the more information I have about lube, the better.
My problem with google is that they suck at integrating acquisitions. The product never seems to be as good.
Steve-
AMEN! Writely wasn’t nearly as good when it came out as Google Documents IMHO. I hate to see what they’re going to do to GrandCentral and Jaiku.
Google gobbles everything up and doesn’t even say ‘excuse me’ when it burps.
I’m glad you like the Bloglines Beta. We still have a bit to go. But already many people say they like it better than Google Reader.
Thanks for props!