If you don't want to be tracked, simply use firefox, and add extensions that easily allow you to obstruct tracking, like "customizegoogle" "adblock plus" and NoScript.

Excellent because they leave in the hands of Goggle users to make use of it or not. You may choose no and keep using Google in spite of it. In my opinion the user should be allowed to erase the recorded data at any moment.

In my opinion the user should be allowed to erase the recorded data at any moment.

That option is present, so you got your wish. =p

If you dont want to be tracked, stay off the internet.

that's a retarded statement. i take it you'd be the first monkey to have an RFID chip under your skin won't you?

"well if you don't wanna be tracked, you shouldn't be breathing!"

Umm... he's saying that everyone is being tracked by someone at any given time while on the Internet, whether it's the ISP, NSA, CIA, RIAA, Spyware, or Information Company A tracking you.

Chill out. It's not worth getting so worked-up over.

I believe they make some excellent tools. All those who complain about their privacy should stay away from google and that's it. If you don't like it don't use it. You have a choice! I like it and whatever they store from me isn't harmfull. I don't visit pornsites, I don't download music, I don't use illegal software and the things I send via e-mail aren't 'secrets' or 'sensitive'. I like Google a lot and I hope I can stay using their software.

This feature is totally invaluable:
Whoever can't see the Google History advantage of NEVER losing or forgetting anything + always having everything past at one's quick disposal-- preferring instead to search for hours & to boot often not finding...is either a huge sinner and/or too paranoid re Big Brother.
Yes, those are 'legitimate' concerns, but one can still utilize this valuable service w/o concern or detriment while continuing to merrily sin away!

Again you have a choice, so why are piracy folks all up in arms. Get a life, far better fishes to fry.

Even if you don't want to use google you have a lot of other options. Not EVERYONE will agree with everything, I bet someone will disagree with my response.

yup. :)

I think you meant privacy, not piracy. :p

(That's in the other room)

I only use Google for their search engine, mainly because it is the best out there, no other search engines does the job, If people wants to use other Google services then read the terms and conditions. anyway from what I have have heard You you opt in to this web history, if you don;t like it opt out or just don't use any other google service.

The way it is going you will be spied on by lots of companies including Microsoft.

Lesson 1: Avoid the Google Tool Bar like the plague.

Lesson 2: Seriously consider using another search engine entirely.

Lesson 3: Don't over-react about online services gathering useless information in order to give you more relevant useless information.

It's not enabled by default. They've *never* tried to sneak one past us. They've never done anything to provoke such an attitude. Unless you count being successful at providing search and other functionality in a way that is both free and un-intrusive.

If you've got *anything* other than knee-jerk flames, like proof Google has gone or is going to go all Evil™, please supply it.

Lesson 1: Excellent utilization of "personal responsibility" and "choice."

Lesson 2: Excellent utilization of "choice" in the "free market."

Based on your performance in the previous lessons, there's no need to enroll in Lesson 3. ;O)

Cute.

But you never answered the question as to *why* anyone should react in such a way to Google.

In fact, every time I've asked that question in this topic, it has been completely ignored.

Funny, that...

Perhaps your "questions" are ignored because you have a habit of requesting well-known information, posting flimsy retorts once the info is provided, and diverting attention from the relevant information with yet another tiresome round of sarcasm/insults.

Funny, that...

If it's so "well-known" then it should be practically effortless to explain. Please, do elaborate.

Lesson 1: It's only turned on if you turn it on - imagine that. They even give you a warning in big bold letters saying:

"Hey, stupid. We know you don't read the license agreement, so we're pointing out something you might be concerned about. Do you want the advanced features knowing the privacy concerns?"

Lesson 2: I would recommend that anyway. Find what works for you and use it.

You noticed that too? You even state this very interesting phenomenon, and the only reply does exactly what you described. Amazing.

Proof.

It's all I require.

If it's so damned readily available, it shouldn't be too hard for you to post it.

and diverting attention from the relevant information with yet another tiresome round of sarcasm/insults.

I ask you for the relevant information behind your claims...and you whine about what a meanie I am. (And then insult me...)

Funny that...

Fine. Make your baseless claims. Refuse to back them up. It works so well for so many others here, after all.

So much for trying to have a logical discussion.

Don't hold your breath. I've been trying to get him to explain it for two days now. Good luck.

LOL. I have said for a long time that "Google is the Devil!".

See how it works? Google comes in being all nice and kind and "your buddy" and slowly takes more and more and you don't know it until it's too late.

Jump ship now while you can.

Again, Google is the Devil!

See how it works? Google comes in being all nice and kind and "your buddy" and slowly takes more and more and you don't know it until it's too late.

BS.

What have they done?

Name one thing that they've done without the users explicit permission.

I see a lot of people here claiming Google is the Devil, but I see *nothing* provided to back that up. Not a single damn thing.

Are you all a bunch of trolls, or do you actually have anything to back it up with?

Google is bonerific! !!! !! !

Maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea to see the merger with Doubleclick stopped.

It wouldn't solve much, but it might delay the seemingly inevitable by a few months!

"Web History will enable Google to personalize search results based on what you've searched for in the past"

Thanks Google, but no thanks!

And you don't need my history, despite your buying doubleclick and pretty much identifying your entire purpose as tracking activity and performing click analysis of websites and selling the data.

But I guess this is akin to expecting a tiger to stop being a tiger.

Its been fun, but perhaps its time to find a new search engine.

Perhaps we can get Google's attention if we all started using a different search engine.

If you disagree with Google's terms, that's definitely up to you.

That's the beauty of a competing market. Choice.

...ain't it great?

I have 4 different online banking accounts and one brokerage account. I don't need Google's "massive infrastructure" to keep tabs on my surfing history or to cache pages.

Good for you?

You must have a really small dik. LOL

Well, if they get their hands on everyone's***ory cache, it will only help the porn sites get more search hits. After all, the Internet is really for porn. The other stuff is for when we're at work or someone looking over our shoulder, right?

The story says: "For privacy reasons, Web History is not activated by default, and Google is not storing the histories for all account holders without their permission."

I have always turned off the page rank feature in my google toolbar, and Google has always been honest about giving you the option to keep your privacy. Unlike many earlier toobars, which went belly up precisely because they tried to stuff adware and spyware down your throat. So far, Google has been up front and honest about it.

So far, Google has been up front and honest about it.

Well, to the people that read the license agreements and the check boxes they're randomly checking during installation.

To everyone else, they're just a big bunch of dirty liars. :p

I've got other things to do instead of reading page after page of legalese. A better choice is just to assume that anyone who needs a ten page legal document to cover their a$$ is probably trying to screw me. Therefore, I just don't opt in, buy the service, sign-up for the credit card, etc. As a result, I have less useless crap, fewer advertising phone calls, less spam, a little privacy, and far more money. Oh, and I don't spend half my day reading 6 font legal crap.

lmao..

Yeah. Because the license agreement for the toolbar, homepage, etc is 10 pages long.

*shakes head*

Assume whatever you want, my friend. Some of us would rather deal in fact than assumption.

Absolute nonsense. They even alert you to the possible privacy concerns in the agreement.

Ever see the "Warning! Read Carefully. This isn't the usual Yada-yada" message when choosing to enable or disable "Advanced Features"?

My guess is no, because you seem to be judging without any practical knowledge or experience to stand on.

The misconception is that the 2 page agreement is all there is to it. However, there are links in that agreement that lead to other pages. If you want ALL of the information, you could be reading for quite some time.

Privacy Policy - 4 pages
Privacy Notice - 2 pages
Privacy FAQ - 2 pages
Google Terms of Service - 10 pages

And then there is some Department of Commerce policy they reference, but we all know that would have to be at least 500 pages.

However, I'm not talking just about the Google agreement, I'm talking about all of the garbage that I have to spend my day reading in order to make sure I'm not getting screwed. Simple examples; today I got a notice of changes to a credit card agreement and an insurance policy. It used to be that I would not bother reading these, that is until the credit card companies doubled minimum payments and slipped the notices in between advertising pages included with a monthly bill. I'm thinking of opening a company that does nothing but read this junk so people know what's really going on with their bank accounts, insurance, loans, privacy agreements, etc.

By the way, print out a few EULAs sometime, just to see how long they are.

However, I'm not talking just about the Google agreement, I'm talking about all of the garbage that I have to spend my day reading in order to make sure I'm not getting screwed.

I feel for ya. Really, I do. Okay, you got me. I don't. You see, this is something we *all* do (or should).

It's called being a responsible consumer.

I don't know about you, but I apply for maybe 1 credit card a year. I sign up for maybe 1 service a month, but only really stick with 2-3 a year. I haven't changed insurance companies or banks in ages. The agreements and policies don't really add up to all that much, even if I have to check in from time to time to make sure they haven't changed anything without bothering to inform me.

I've read plenty of EULA's. Check out some of my past posts on the MS EULAs.

Is your reading really that slow, or is 10 minutes every month or so just too much to ask for of ya?

Sure, we *should* all read everything, but many people have too much going on with work, school, family, and a myriad of other daily activities. There are a lot of things that everybody *should* do, and even more things that they *shouldn't* have to do.

Ethical business practices and some general agreement that it's not okay to abuse privacy would eliminate the need for a major part of the paperwork. Instead, we seem to have moved to a system where something is only wrong if you get caught. Given your previous stances in the area of ethics, I'm a little surprised at your view here.

There are a lot of things that everybody *should* do, and even more things that they *shouldn't* have to do.

So we shouldn't have to research what we pay for, or make sure we can trust the services we use? Wow...the sky must be *really* pink in your world.

Idealism is great, but it falls flat on it's face when hit with this thing called reality.

In order for businesses to operate, they must avoid legal persecution. In order to do so, they must label everything, state terms of use, and policies on what can and cannot be expected of the product or service in question. Ever read the labels on a hair dryer? Same thing.

Ethical business practices and some general agreement that it's not okay to abuse privacy would eliminate the need for a major part of the paperwork.

The paperwork protects them from frivolous lawsuits. But what I really want to know is how Google apparently abused your privacy. To enable this feature we're discussing, you must actually and explicitly *enable* the feature. Where would less paperwork help those who apparently cannot read?

Given your previous stances in the area of ethics, I'm a little surprised at your view here.

Given my previous stances on personal responsibility and the free market, I'm a little surprised you're a little surprised. ;p

"Idealism is great, but it falls flat on it's face when hit with this thing called reality."

Honesty is idealism? Okay, you've reinforced my point.

"The paperwork protects them from frivolous lawsuits."

That WAS true, but is no longer. Now, companies use the same paperwork to slip in little changes that help their bottom line at the expense of the consumer. These are, of course, changes that they do not want to consumer to notice.

"Given my previous stances on personal responsibility and the free market, I'm a little surprised you're a little surprised."

It's crystal clear to me now. You expect personal responsibility and honest behavior from the consumer and NOT from the company. I think the multi-billion dollar corporation should take at least as much, yes even more, responsibility than the consumer. The average consumer does not have a staff of a few hundred well paid lawyers to pore over every document that crosses a desk. The corporation does.

"Idealism is great, but it falls flat on it's face when hit with this thing called reality."

Honesty is idealism? Okay, you've reinforced my point.

No, expecting the litigious to be honest and not sue over anything that isn't labeled, in the policy, or terms is idealism. Honesty is great, but expecting companies to rely on the honesty of those folks and *not* protect themselves is just plain dumb.

That WAS true, but is no longer. Now, companies use the same paperwork to slip in little changes that help their bottom line at the expense of the consumer. These are, of course, changes that they do not want to consumer to notice.

There have always been dishonest companies, but we're talking about Google here. What have they done that is dishonest in your opinion.

You expect personal responsibility and honest behavior from the consumer and NOT from the company.

No. I expect *both* parties to be responsible and honest. That means that they both do what is necessary to protect themselves and not lay the blame for any lack (on their part) in that department on the other.

I expect Google to create terms, policies and conditions. I expect users to read and understand them. I expect *both* parties to abide them, and I expect neither to blame the other for their own failure to do any of the above.

To date, Google has done nothing in violation of their stated terms and policies. Those checking boxes without reading such have no right to blame Google for any supposed violation of their rights.

The average consumer does not have a staff of a few hundred well paid lawyers to pore over every document that crosses a desk.

They don't need them. As i explained above it takes little time for the average individual to read and understand the terms of the few new services or products they get involved with on a yearly basis. A corporation has *tons* and are held to stricter laws and accountability.

Google has committed questionable acts and they are easily found through any search engine, including their own. I have no intention of carrying out a long, drawn out, and insult-laced debate on that subject with you right now.

Frankly, most privacy concerns regarding Google involve their possible future actions and the extreme amounts of information they do/will have under their control. I know you prefer reacting after the damage is done, and you know that I prefer a more cautious stance. I think you are a little out of touch with current practices and trends, and I'm sure you feel the same way about me. You favor the position of the company, I favor the position of the consumer.

We're starting to repeat ourselves, so we'll just have to disagree and see how it works out down the road. Have a good night (morning?).

Google has committed questionable acts and they are easily found through any search engine, including their own. I have no intention of carrying out a long, drawn out, and insult-laced debate on that subject with you right now.

Good God, man. Here we go again. Insults? Where, I see none. Are you actually going to pull this crap? "Oh, I have the info, but since it's *so* easy to find I won't tell anyone.."

Thanks. Point proven. I can't argue against paranoia. It's not a logical expression of belief and therefore unable to be routed by the use of such.

concerns regarding Google involve their possible future actions

Pure BS. On what basis??

That's got to be one of the lamest rationalizations for FUD I've ever heard. Are you scared of the boogeyman too?

You favor the position of the company, I favor the position of the consumer.

No. You merely have an illogical distrust of successful business. I've seen *nothing* in your responses that gives any credence whatsoever on a logical level to any of your distrust. If you've got a logical, reasonable beef with Google, let's hear it. Otherwise, you're doing nothing but shovel FUD.

Wow, try not taking it all so personally. eh? Can't you disagree with someone without having a stroke? Really, calm down, you'll live longer. Yours is not the only relevant viewpoint on earth. Get over it.

"Insults? Where, I see none."

I suppose I have to look up all your posts for you, too, right? Nah, I got better things to do.

Yours is not the only relevant viewpoint on earth.

...at least I can back mine up with logic and fact. All you've got are pointless accusations and personal attacks. I've done nothing in this thread to provoke you other than ask you to back up your claims which you have refused to do.

Yeah, we're done here. As you said, I got better things to do.

"All you've got are pointless accusations and personal attacks."

Hahaha! I'm sorry, but THAT coming from YOU (the King of the personal attack) is just too funny!

**Hey, the Blue Ray vs. HD-DVD thread is much more fun.

Google can do no wrong in my eyes as long as I'm not running their toolbar. This will be a tough feature for them to sell to me.

Very interesting stuff. I agree with some of the other coments on here when I signed up for it and saw that they had my web history since somewhere back in 2005. But it was also interesting to see what I was looking at back then, including the trends.

And for the paranoid people, I noticed an option to "pause" web history tracking and "delete" entries. I don't know if that means it's deleted permantly, or just from your site but not Googles. But who knows. YMMV

These "tracking" stuff should be off by default, as it is with google(?). Frankly, if i want to see this sort of history i might as well find extension/add-on for Firefox to do that PRIVATELY.

It is my understanding that it is turned off by default. However, the tracking uses Google's Page Rank, which is also off by default. If you have had pagerank turned on, which I believe I have, then it has tracked your web history. I agree, I'm not sure I like this, but it is in their agreement when you activate it.

Either way, it should have been clearer.

Big, Bold, Red letters for people who have trouble reading normal-sized black typeface?

Yeah, that would have worked...

/sarcasm

Some people like to blame everyone else when they are faced with their own monumental lack of responsibility.

I should sue Google for using my ideas. ;)

As posted on BetaNews on Dec 24 2005 :
"Personally - I already know how a real-good(TM) search engine will eventually operate, and it's nothing like anything any of these folks make it work today. It will one day work this way:
1. Strong integration in the browser and OS, meaning the browser will actually keep track of your search keywords, what sites you checked out (and closed within X amount of seconds meaning it was CRAP in your opinion) and what you bookmarked (meaning it was GREAT in your opinion).
...
4. A not-too-complex algorithm will be able to digest all this information and:
a. optimize search results for keywords based on how many actual real ppl (NOT spammers) saved the resulting page for future reference, or spent the most time reading it (even without bookmarking).
...
d. anything you will be willing to log about yourself will assist YOU to get [website] recommendations from others doing about the same exact thing you are doing (calling [a specific country] overseas, running Maxthon, developing in Java, whatever) RIGHT THIS MOMENT (or in past few days -whatever).
"

As I said in 2005...it was simply BOUND TO HAPPEN. Microsoft will follow suit within a few months, with the very-good-excuse "Google started it".

All you people bad mouthing Google crack me up. Every Google service/app is all opt in. You have to choose to use the service in the first place. And they even tell you up front what they are doing.

Well damn them for being open, honest and up front about what they are doing. Maybe that is why people are not bothered as much by Google.

And maybe the reason that MS and other companies get so much flack is that they try to be sneaky about what they do, are not honest about their intentions and trying to get a straight answer out of them is like trying to get one out of a politician.

See the difference?

um.. No. I don't think I will elect to sign up for this.

Google has been doing things like this for quite a while now, not to mention buying up every company in site. If any other company was doing this they would be branded as evil, but everybody looooves Google. Why? Beats me, it's just another company. It just became popular to like them, just like it's popular to hate Microsoft. It's the in thing to do. This is why fanboys make me sick.

Why does everybody loooove Google (or at least almost everybody) ? Because Google plays it in the young and indifferent style. "Take it or leave it, we don't care, it's up to you". You bet they don't care. This is in analogy with a macho man's behavior in terms of seduction, and those who trust Google are the same as innocent and naive young ladies who believe the wolf is a prince. It's *all* in communication. I don't trust Google more than I trust Microsoft.

Google make great products for free based off of ad revenue. It's a great business model that I, like many others, benefit from.

I agree that there definitely are fanboys (and I hate them too), but as others have said, the reason most people like Google (including myself) is because they offer the majority of their services for free. The only drawback on these free services is that there might be some textual ads or usage tracking (which you must agree to before using). And actually, many of their services are simply free - period.

Google Earth, Picasa, Google Reader, and others don't even have ads.

So people weigh this in their minds and say, "Hmmm... I can get a very useful service in return for ignoring un-obtrusive text-based ads and giving them the statistics of what is used (which any other company does as well)." For most people, it's worth it.

To say that Google is merely displaying some ads and tracking usage is quite naive.

They are building a complete profile of your personality. No one can say how they will use this profile in the future and to whom they will offer it. What services will they offer in 5 or 10 years to whom?

P.S.: I still use Google search and Google Earth. But I'm not logged in. I moved away from Gmail and use alternative (better) services for feeds and bookmarks.

???? Why on earth would Google care about Joe Blow's personality?

Are you sure your tinfoil hat is thick enough?

Maybe b0mmel just knows a little bit about social psychology and how much it is utilized in advertising planning, both in the short AND long term.

b0mmel actually made a good point, which you ridiculed because you had no clue what he was talking about. Nice move.

No. You misunderstood me (easy to do when you jump to conclusions).

I don't care what company we're talking about. Big Corporation 1 doesn't care what your personality is. The closest interest a company could have is finding out what your interests are. Then they could use that to provide relevant advertising which would have a much higher success rate. That is far from creating a "personality profile." Making that jump is not just paranoid. It's irresponsible.

In all reality, it's a win-win for the company and the user. The company would benefit from more effective advertising. And I don't know about you, but I would much rather have targeted plain-text ads about things I actually care about than random, un-targeted "get 1000 free smileys" graphical and flash ads.

In order for a system like this to work, the stats and history have to be tied to the person they belong to. So you either sign up for it, or you don't.

You said you use better services for feeds and bookmarks. If you don't mind, I'd like to know what those services are. Honestly. I haven't used any service like those before, and I don't know what others are out there.

Many companies do, in fact, care about the personalities of their customers and they regularly buy information about individual customers (yes, they buy it in bulk). And, they care so much about this that they pay entire departments of social psychologists very good money to analyze that information. Oh, and some of these policies are agreed to simply by paying for internet service or even your computer.

I kind of thought this was, by now, fairly common knowledge. Sorry to burst the bubble for you.

Did you even read my post or just reply with the same exact knee-jerk?

You should try communication some time. It's not just saying what you want to over and over and completely ignoring the other's statement(s).

"Did you even read my post or just reply with the same exact knee-jerk?"

Yes, I read your post. I disagreed and offered alternative (and factual) information. I can't do anything about your problem with feeling ignored.

I can't do anything about your problem with feeling ignored.

How about... you know... ...not ignoring what I say?

You didn't even address the explanation I gave for my standpoint. All you did was elaborate on the exact point I was responding to in my comment.

This is bull**** it was already on months ago..
and it's kinda hidden in order to turn it off....
unless they changed something since they say they are going live now.

You don't turn it off. You have to explicitly turn it on. I tried it myself (for about 3 seconds) just to see what it was all about. They can't "turn it on" anyway unless you have the Google Web History plugin installed or the Google Toolbar with PageRank enabled. And if you already had PageRank enabled, they're not collecting anything new with this Web History. They were getting all the same information before - it's just that now you might be able to benefit from it.

If you have Gmail or Google is your Homepage..it is already on..unless something has changed.
Go to your Gmail account, click My Account, than click Web History, you will find All History on the Left. The Yellow Highlight will tell you if it's On or Paused. Thats without the Google Toolbar installed.

That's search history - totally different. And you had to explicitly turn that on too when it was launched 2 years ago.

One more reason not install "Google Toolbar". Like I needed another one.

One has to sit back and digest this. There is one big megacorp that knows everything about you: Where you surf to, what you search for, what you write to whom, your appointments, the feeds you like to read, your bookmarks, your notes, the ads you click, what you buy through Checkout. How long will they keep this records? Five years or 20 years?

Even if this is (for now) not connected to your real identity, I'm sure they could and would do that within a minute when being subpoenaed by a government (being that the Chinese, the U.S. or whatever country is important for them). Google has shown in the past that they bow to censorship.

On my sympathy scale Google is bordering Scientology.

Especially since they argued with the US when they wanted their information, but when the Chinese asked for the information, they couldn't hand the data over fast enough.

Hmm - is the real color of Google "red"?

Google China operates under a different set of rules than Google USA.

Well, they've been doing this for some years. This "new" thing gave me my search history since 2005. I understand the data is valuable for them and THEM. It is nice to have an option to erase whatever you do not want to see there, but, is it actually erased?

This will only last as long as it takes to realize that the majority of webcache in the world is pr0n.

heh

Then again..

heh

I was going to post a rebuttal and tell you how wrong you were, but then I opened my history:

-BetaNews | Google Wants Your Web History
-BetaNews | Inside Information; Unreleased Products
-Hot Asian wearing lingerie cooks kitty!!
-Fair footed female fondles fellow female's face
-GrandMILF makes cookies... NAKED!
-Soft skinned software programmer does softcore pr0n
-Breaking Pornography Addiction :: No-Porn.com

HAHAHA!

I've been using google since day one, used all their beta and final software I use docs, gtalk, all and they have tracked every bit of data about me and I write a lot and use the internet for everything. Am I the only person that google has so much data on, I don't think, so am I don't only person any web company has data on, I don't think so. This is great, I send google a lot of suggestions and guess on every single suggestion, not to say it was just me, but they have come through the funny thing is that I sent them an email just last week requesting exactly this and not knowing it was coming out. I also suggested a Google Credit Report type feature as a requirement given to all google users, showing who has viewed, requested, your information and I think they are going to come through. Nonetheless my web experience with google has quadrupled, if you are planning on committing a crime, stay away from google but nonetheless I think they would not say anything anyway.

But not if you modify your hostfile, adblocker or (worst case) firewall to block those particular connections.
--->You do know they have the ability to track you as an individual across the internet?

I don't use Google nor any of their products.
I'll just say if Microsoft were to do this, the EU would be all over them and the anti-MS school would meltdown.

Well said ghammer.

Clusty is a good alternative. Same results (clustering engine), none of the tracking or butt-sniffing from google: http://clusty.com/

Someone here used to say this all the time. Now I will say it because it's appropriate.
- -
- -
- -
- -
- -
Google is the Devil!

That would be System Mechanic. Man I miss his "Google is the Devil" comments...

Just ask Joe Dirt...same guy. :)

Dumb Dumb Dumb, yes Google is smart if you like being exploited for your data. Who says we have to GIVE them our data so THEY can make money without paying us a dime? Time to start charging google for letting them use OUR metadata. No point in building a fortune for THEM while we get bombarded with ads in return. And for the record, if you aren't already using your hosts files to block all adservers, you should. Everytime I see an ad online I right click, get the domain, and redirect it in my hosts file. I'm pretty sure this means that Google is billing advertisers for ad requests made by my computer that were never displayed to me.

You do know they have the ability to track you as an individual across the internet? Especially since they now bought DoubleClick. Doublieclick use to track people across ALL their clients sites building detailed (anonymous) profiles on people so they can serve ads. Google does the same with adsense, now that they are the same Google has the ability to spy on everyone. Spying isn't the issue though, the issue is they are passively making millions off us and we have no choice or ability to secure our data or charge them for using us. Anti-trust - hell yes.

yea lets charge a company for using info from a service they provide for free. they make money off the service thats why its offered.. if you're right clicking each time then you are in no way bombarded with ads
if you don't want your data used by them anonymously don't use the service.

Oh my god! It must be a coincidence... but we *both* read half of the article and assumed we knew Google's business model! Hold on a sec, I need to rewrap my excuse for a brain with more aluminum foil...

P.S. Star Wars blows.

This is actually pretty cool. I just tried it out and all the things I was looking for were there like being able to pause it temporarily and remove/change items.

And I remember people calling MS big brother... I tend to think that this right up that alley.

I hope no one actually freaks out about this. It's entirely opt-in. You have to install a plugin or purposefully enable the option (if you already have the Google toolbar installed) for it to start collecting history.

If some people use it and like it, good for them. They found a new service that works for them.

Personally, I'd rather just search through my Firefox history. Thanks Google, but no thanks.

You know every single person is going to flip out though, about how Google is taking over the world.

You guys(& Skorpian) got it right-- the rest are shrill & hysterical "ignorant arrogants".