"It is not evil". Keep telling yourself that. Google is selling you to the world, and this is just one more way to get you on their site and making money for them.
"If you're not paying, you're the product" still applies, I agree.
They Did It: Google Personalizes Search & It Is Not Evil
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Re: They Did It: Google Personalizes Search & It Is Not Evil
#22Discussion on Google's announcement: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3447048
Re: They Did It: Google Personalizes Search & It Is Not Evil
#23He's basically saying he overstated his claims in the previous article by conflating current implementation with how things were going to be indefinitely.
As a writer and content-producer his whole notion of 'evil' seems to be tied to identity and attribution. Discussions on this page about privacy are independent of that. In fact there's two meanings of privacy even on this page: leaking your private data to your friends, and concerns about how much Google knows about you.
I wish we could talk about these three issues separately, skipping increasingly-content-free words like 'evil' and 'privacy'.
Re: They Did It: Google Personalizes Search & It Is Not Evil
#24Google search is great.
Everything else is done better by someone else.
Re: They Did It: Google Personalizes Search & It Is Not Evil
#25"It is not evil". Keep telling yourself that. Google is selling you to the world, and this is just one more way to get you on their site and making money for them.
i'm not sure how being able to click personalized or regular search is not evil
it's data they have, data they use. what you choose to see doesnt have much to see with it.
i don't think they're move evil than yesterday, but they're not less either
(basically agreeing in greater lengths hehe)
Re: They Did It: Google Personalizes Search & It Is Not Evil
#26"It is not evil". Keep telling yourself that. Google is selling you to the world, and this is just one more way to get you on their site and making money for them.
And? What's evil about advertising?
Seriously, I'm surprised to see this kind of comment ranked so highly on HN. Google makes products. Most of them are good, some of them are excellent. In exchange, they show you ads. The alternative is making the user pay. There's nothing wrong with this arrangement; it's the default monetization strategy for a huge number of companies.
The core of the argument seems to be that Google knows too much about you, and is selling your personal data to advertisers. That's not really the case, though. Google isn't going to ESPN and saying, "Here's John Smith from Deerborn, Michigan. He's 38, has a wife and a 4 year old daughter, and cheats on his taxes. Give me $50." They're simply allowing advertisers to target users fitting a certain profile. Now, you may not be comfortable with how much Google knows about you, and that's fine, but targeted advertising is hardly evil.
Re: They Did It: Google Personalizes Search & It Is Not Evil
#27Google search is great. Everything else is done better by someone else.
OK, can you tell me better alternatives to gmail, youtube, gdocs?
Re: They Did It: Google Personalizes Search & It Is Not Evil
#28"It is not evil". Keep telling yourself that. Google is selling you to the world, and this is just one more way to get you on their site and making money for them.
"If you're not paying, you're the product" still applies, I agree.
That's a naive quote. You are the product, yes, but you're also the customer. Google has to appease you to keep you. Without a balance between consumer and advertiser, Google won't make any money.
Re: They Did It: Google Personalizes Search & It Is Not Evil
#29Re: They Did It: Google Personalizes Search & It Is Not Evil
#30"It is not evil". Keep telling yourself that. Google is selling you to the world, and this is just one more way to get you on their site and making money for them.
And? What's evil about advertising? Seriously, I'm surprised to see this kind of comment ranked so highly on HN. Google makes products. Most of them are good, some of them are excellent. In exchange, they show you ads. The alternative is making the user pay. There's nothing wrong with this arrangement; it's the default monetization strategy for a huge number of companies. The core of the argument seems to be that Goo…
Your comment greatly changed my views on advertising.