What is Digg?151 Comments
- inrain, on 10/12/2007, -7/+152What is this, some joke? Does the author not realize that one's ISP records every single site you visit unless you're doing some kind of encrypted tunneling? Google is one of the only ones actually taking some positive initiative on data retention (data 18+ months old gets permanently deleted). If you recall, when the Gov't came knocking not too long ago, wanting to know search queries, Yahoo, MS, AOL, etc., all caved in and handed it over. Google, on the other hand, didn't. They fought and won the legal battle. And we saw from the AOL debacle (when they released millions of queries as "research") that there's enormous specific, identifying data in "anonymous" queries when you can correlate the same user.
Should people be watching Google 24/7? Yes, like any other watch dog group monitoring all big companies. This article really makes little sense in light of reality though. If you want Google not to correlate one behavior with another, use multiple accounts. Your ISP sees you, either way. Switching to Yahoo or Live solely because you're afraid of Google's scope makes absolutely no sense, considering your alternatives all collect the same data. - OneManArmy, on 10/12/2007, -7/+68"The amount of data they're gathering on me is frightening. Not because of Google, but because I'm positive the government will legislate their way into Google's database sooner or later and start labeling people as suspicious."
Look. If you are paranoid, then host every single service you want to use on your own servers. The point is, once you put your data on others peoples' servers then you can forget about it. This can applied not only to google but to every single entity on the internet, amazon, ebay, facebook...etc. Heck, Do a traceroute to see where your data goes before it reaches its destination. You will be up for a surprise.
Bottomline, privacy on the internet is very very difficult. The best thing you can do is not put any sensitive/private information online. - judicar, on 10/12/2007, -2/+49*coughcrazycough*
- dojonz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+49Tis better to have Googled and lost than never to have Googled at all.
- SwissCamel, on 10/12/2007, -3/+50Christ, I'd have to use Yahoo! It doesn't bear thinking about.
- Narwaffle, on 10/12/2007, -4/+37Or, god forbid, Windows Live Search.
- Flashman, on 10/12/2007, -10/+41"The amount of data they're gathering on me is frightening."
As if anybody is interested in what you do online. - markus941, on 10/12/2007, -6/+30Maybe if OpenID matures to a point where it's usable, we can actually get off the Google crack pipe. Distributed login for all the Gservices is one of the things that makes Google gain market share in all the areas they enter. I just don't have the patience to stop using Google quite yet, but I'm glad people are looking for alternatives.
- psilanthropist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20 > "My question to others who have blocked Google is this; . . ."
wtf ? just because you were crazy enough to do it doesnt mean other people share your madness ? - garageillusion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+16@tackle
Google is usually faster at finding digg articles than... digg. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -8/+21I would rather have a comany like Google know so much about me, then say, Microsoft, Yahoo or Mac. I have yet to find a reason not to trust Google...
- unknamed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13Your rage just melted my monitor.... thanks.
- unknamed, on 10/12/2007, -10/+22Paranoia such as this assumes that you are actually important enough for a company, such as Google, to do something with the information they have gathered. Personally my self esteem just isn't that high, so I'm not really worried about being targeted for evil purposes.
So I get to keep using Google. - SVPirate, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11@schoate09:
"Search: Windows Live"
Don't make me laugh - Windows Live! Search sucks - I've run tests with it alongside Google and Yahoo! (I'm a web designer - I have a vested interest) and repeatedly it misses out hugely useful or important sites and resources that are listed on both others. I don't think MS vet the content at all or anything sinister, I just think their algorithms just plain suck. - firegrind, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10have your cake and eat it ... get data from the googleplex without trading your precious data with the help of a googlescraper such as http://scroogle.org. replace the search box in firefox with scroogle search and relax.
- inrain, on 10/12/2007, -3/+12@ pairanoyd [...]
Sponsored by Ask.com™ - mattcoady, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8@DCUK
"This is nothing more than an advert for ASK.com
How did I know that the first search engine mentioned would be ASK.com after their pseudo revolution advertising campaign.
Marked as SPAM."
Not really. He points out his complete dissatisfaction with ask and moves onto yahoo.
"For a company (Ask) that relies on search, I wasn't impressed for too long." - inukki, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10as a "regular digg member" I couldn't "survive" without Google, seriously!
- laterallateral, on 10/12/2007, -1/+9@ pairanoyd
"It pisses me off to have to wade through hundreds of pages of ***** paid for results to find the obscure and outdated info that I frequently search for."
Looks to me like you either suck magnificantly at searching or are looking for information that only exists within the pages of the godamn Necronomicon.
You know who else poisons your pets? MODERN LIFE. Put your hate-hat on, now. - jazzviolin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Last year, Google was frequently down here in China. Mainly Gmail, news.google.com, and all google.com searches resulted in an error page. (Probably China tinkering with some settings somewhere)
I have to say, I had to deal with no Google for days at a time.
It was a difficult, frustrating time. Having said that, I understand why their stock is at $467 per share. - reyitocazador, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9Use Yahoo?
- LaueOfficer, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9There is a YAHOO! Answers ad at the top of my page! I call conspiracy!
/pyscobabble - oesj, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7"Yeah he is afraid of internet history. Didn't we already go over this? If you don't want them to track your websites don't sign up for it?"
oh! why did i register with instatrace?!
/crappy simpsons reference - Vineman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Anyone else half-expect him to use Adsense ads?
- Quakes, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@DCUK
Wait, how is this advertising? He even says their results were crappy! - seGGy, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Life? Certainly. But it would be annoying to go back to the other sub-par (relative to google) services out there. I guess my alternatives would break down as:
1) Email: Yahoo
2) Search: Yahoo
3) Calendar: Paper
4) IM: gaim (not much change here)
5) Apps: Don't sue them anyway - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -8/+13Google is a must for techies :)
- Cowfrommars, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5"Just ***** Windows Live it"
... We would be lost. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Froogle is now called Product Search thats all
Get back to your w4nking - vemerge, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I also remember the web pre-Google, but Yahoo! has never done anything for me as a search engine. Before Google came around I used a variety of engines: MetaCrawler, HotBot, Dogpile, etc. Yahoo! was decent as a directory but never good as search.
- philipz78, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4He said he hated it! Not much of an endorsement.
- tizz66, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Welcome to 1996, enjoy your stay!
- Netrilix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Heh, back in the day I used MetaCrawler. Then they changed their entire site to look more professional, I didn't like it, and I moved over to Google.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3If you engage in blogging with political topics then you should do so without worry... did the first press writers fear the government? Probably, but would we be living the standard of life we do today without them?
- Albion01, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5You geeks are all the same, your so obsessed with obscurity that once something becomes popular you'll turn on it like a starving cannibal. It was ok to use Google when no one else was using it because it was sheik and obscure, but now that it's popular (No thanks to the original geeks who took it there) and all the cheerleaders and jocks are using it you're ready to tar and feather it and nail it to a cross. What ever happened to hating Micro$oft? I agree with jabjabs, Google is a great resource on the Internet; pictures, RSS, search, docs and spreads, etc... If you're that paranoid about the government finding something out about you then maybe you should lock yourself in a closet because otherwise it's a frivolous venture.
- SamKellett, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4This may be outdated now, but I thought Google sold their results to Yahoo to use?
- venom8599, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4What're you so upset with them about btw? The whole China thing?
- laterallateral, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yeah, I would survive with a stick, some rope and a sharp rock but it wouldn't be pleasant and I wouldn't get much work done.
Bottom line is, if you worry that your behavior online may be incriminating, reconsider your behavior. If you have data that you deem too sensitive for public access, don't store it in someone else's machine. Else than that, have fun taking advantage of the progress we've made over the span of centuries - we've come a long, long way. - mykos, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3@ inrain
"Yahoo, MS, AOL, etc., all caved in and handed it over. Google, on the other hand, didn't. They fought and won the legal battle."
They may not have caved to the U.S. government, but they rolled over for China, who would undoubtedly do worse things with the info than the U.S. would. - iTacoMan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I only use Google for searching, and some email, that could easily just be moved to my own server. It's not like I couldn't do it.
- paulmdx, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3"Could you do it?" - Yes. Maybe I wouldn't be quite as productive (particularly with search), but Google has very few products that can't be replaced by others that do most of the same job.
- roinur, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I've switched to Excite because they sponsor last.fm ;). So far I'm satisfied. We need to feed the other companies too, not just google, it's gotten too big!
- DarkDragon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Yes, i would have time to create a web startup called "Google"
- DarkAngelPT, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Three words for this guy:
tin
foil
hat - Netrilix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I would be lost without iGoogle (formerly Google Personalized Homepage), but that's about it. The reason I love that one so much is because it gives me my e-mail, news, weather, current popular Digg articles, today's Woot, and a nice little calendar, all in one place. I'm sure I could create my own page that does the same thing, but I love having the Google one readily available. All the other Google services, I have alternatives already in mind.
- Flamekebab, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4I've yet to find another search engine that is even half as good as Google, but it doesn't matter that much, as I use Google for normal search, Froogle (I refuse to accept the name change!), image search and gmail. Ooh, I nearly forgot, I also use it for analytics and mapping.
There may be other things too, but those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head.
I heart Google. - tackle, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I really dont understand how OpenID is going to solve the issue. Websites can still track you with your "Open ID". Or, have I got the concept of Open-ID wrong??
- seizium, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Hello Mr Balmer. It's nice to see you in such a cheery mood... wait, what are you doing with that chair?
/runs - xmod3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2If google suddenly disappeared, we would all have to search with K-Fed.
Do you like playing with fire?
http://searchwithkevin.prodege.com/ - skyer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Forget about Google news, just get on Digg ..
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