Google getting evil (and taking on Vista's search)
Google's unofficial motto was 'Don't be evil', a good motto most people would admit. That is, of course, until they contradict such a motto, and start being evil.
First it was censorship, then it was the stuff about scanning books, Google Earth's photos being security risk, inability to counter click-fraud on Adwords, the list goes on with the 'troubles' they've caused. Google Watch has more on this if you're interested.
Then you've got the whole 'we buy out everything' approach.
Recently Google bought FeedBurner. There was a bit of an uproar (sorry, didn't save the links) from a few bloggers who used Feedburner, they didn't want Google having that sort of power. Google would then be able to track content makers and through Google reader, the content readers. Thats some nasty privacy issues if you think about it.
The ironic thing is, I know of another company who has bought out a lot of other companies (and continues to do so), who is considered evil by millions of people - including the majority of its user base. They've been sued to hell over their lifespan, but are slowly changing their image to a 'friendly/decent' company. Microsoft.
Speaking of Microsoft, they've got this new product out, you may have heard of it. Vista.
One of Vista's best features was its fantastic search. Apple's OS X has the same sort of thing, dubbed Spotlight.
Apparently Google wasn't too happy with Vista's search, it was far too built into the OS, far too good, and was stopping them from implementing their own Google Desktop Search. So they bitched about it. Loudly. And its been brought to the Department of Justice, and Microsoft is being forced to change the way Vista handles its search.
Winxperts reports on it.
Okay, sure, Microsoft is apparently abusing its power to release features in its own products now. They've agreed to three things, the the one that stands out the most is point two. (emphasis is mine)
(2) The default desktop search program will be launched whenever Windows launches a new top-level window to provide search results. This will include an existing location on the Start menu that a user can select to display additional search results in a new window. Windows Vista also includes search boxes located in the upper-right hand corner of various windows in the operating system, such as Windows Explorer and the Control Panel. In these windows, when the user enters a query Windows Vista will continue to display the search results using the integrated desktop search functionality. Microsoft has agreed, however, to add a link that, if clicked, will launch the default desktop search program and display search results from that program.
What does that mean exactly? I'm not to sure, but it sounds like the search facilities in the Start Menu will have to pop out into another window. That defeats the point of having the search there at all!
Look, even if I'm wrong (please, please somebody prove me wrong on this one), Google has still over stepped their boundaries, and are moving into asshole territory.
Where is the complaints about Spotlight, doesn't it have the same level of integration?
The problem with all of this is how 'reliant' on Google's services/products I am.
- My homepage is set to iGoogle
- I use Google Reader several times a day to manage my RSS feeds
- I use GMail, both the G-Chat and mail features
- Picasa2 is fantastic for managing my photos
- Google Adwords lets me run my websites a bit easier.
- Google's Calendar is a wonderful organisation service…if only I could edit it with Windows Calendar
So whats the solution? Go to another 'services' provider? What happens when they start 'getting evil', or worse….Google buys them out?
Realistically, I'm now looking at having to port as many 'services' over to open source (or writing it myself - any such products I'd release under CC licensing) and running on my own servers as possible.
This blog is already running on such software, rather than using Blogger.
This gets rid of the 'privacy' issues that plague Google (and for good reasons!), but then has the pitfalls of I have to maintain it, patch security holes, etc.
I was already looking at writing a webmail app (did you know GMail doesn't allow attachments with exe's in it? Even if they are Zipped, TARed, RARed, etc), I'd toyed with the idea of adding Calendar integration. Now I just need to write/find a decent RSS Reader, photo manager (I'd be willing to pay for one if it was good enough…), and 'web portal'.
Sigh. You know the worst thing? All my research for this post was done through Google.