Jim Holden Blog

A google to far

November 17th, 2005

Are we starting to let Google have to much information?

It’s a question I’ve been asking myself for a while now but with the advent of Google Base, I’m somewhat worried that Google is starting to take too much information. Step back for a second and examine what they have already:

Google Groups, Google Gmail, Google Search,The Google COOKIE, Google Ads to name but a few

With all this information I’m becoming worried that they almost know too much. THe public seems to adore them without recognising that the data they now have allows them to know a lot about many people. You wouldn’t object to a few companies knowing a bit about you but i doubt you would give any company details of your emails, shopping habits, what your interested in and so on - it’s too much and essentially we don’t know what they really do with it..

I suppose the second point here is that we also run the risk that they will eventually monopolise the internet to such a degree that our reliance on them gives them the ability to start being less of the “nice” google and perhaps more of an “evil” google..

At the end of the day you have to take your hats off to them, they’ve done a remarkable job but that doesn’t mean we should sit back and let Google become the web instead of the web containing google.

Entry Filed under: Technology