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Google knows who my friends are (Contacts), what I'm saying to them (Gchat/Gmail), where I'm going (Gmaps), what I'm reading (Reader), what I'm writing (Docs) a

by samg 17y ago

Google knows who my friends are (Contacts), what I'm saying to them (Gchat/Gmail), where I'm going (Gmaps), what I'm reading (Reader), what I'm writing (Docs) and what I'm looking for (Search). As far as I'm concerned, operating systems are pretty interchangeable. The things I care about are already all going through Google. Does anyone besides Google offer a similar suite of apps? The only one I can think of is Apple's MobileMe.

chaosprophet 17y ago
How about Outlook/Thunderbird/Facebook (contacts) + Yahoo (mail) + OpenStreetMap (maps) + Sage/Friendfeed (RSS) + Zoho (Docs) + Bing (Search)? While no-one may be offering a similar suite of applications, if you want to use them you can find different services that do. Also currently even if google does know all that information about you, it doesn't know what files you have on your hard drive. In my opinion, giving carte blanche on data on my hard drives to google is a big no for a company that doesn't give two hoots about the privacy of their users.
- samg 17y ago
  The value of Google's services, at least for me, is that they all work together. I can login from an internet cafe in the middle of nowhere and have all my contacts in my email program, the same ones synced to my iPhone. I don't know if I buy the claim that Google doesn't give "two hoots" about your privacy, as long as you don't count selling contextual ads as over the line. But anyway, my point is that the "files" I care about protecting are already with Google. For true protection of your local files, on any operating system, encryption is your only answer.
  - chaosprophet 17y ago
    I believe with facebook connect, you can maybe hack those different services to work together (firefox extension?). Maybe, I should take a look at that idea. And if google did care about my privacy why read all my mails, and keep track of every webpage i visit from their search engine. I don't buy the "we'll only take a peep, just for advertising" logic. Also, google already having all the files you care about would be more an exception than the norm. I would presume a majority of people keep their files stored on their hard drives. In my opinion, keeping track of my actions in any way goes against google's self stated "don't be evil" policy. Or did Paul Buchheit take that policy with him to friendfeed???
Elepsis 17y ago
Sure: Microsoft with Windows Live and Bing. Microsoft knows who my friends are (Messenger/profile), what I'm saying to them (Messenger), where I'm going (Bing Maps), what I'm writing (Office Live), and what I'm looking for (Bing). Granted Office Live is a beta and there is no Microsoft-branded online feed reader. But a lot of the checklist is covered. If you start checking off every box, you'll find that Yahoo has a fairly similar total suite of properties, too. Google just has the most mind share.

by samg 17y ago

chaosprophet 17y ago

How about Outlook/Thunderbird/Facebook (contacts) + Yahoo (mail) + OpenStreetMap (maps) + Sage/Friendfeed (RSS) + Zoho (Docs) + Bing (Search)? While no-one may be offering a similar suite of applications, if you want to use them you can find different services that do. Also currently even if google does know all that information about you, it doesn't know what files you have on your hard drive. In my opinion, giving carte blanche on data on my hard drives to google is a big no for a company that doesn't give two hoots about the privacy of their users.

samg 17y ago
The value of Google's services, at least for me, is that they all work together. I can login from an internet cafe in the middle of nowhere and have all my contacts in my email program, the same ones synced to my iPhone. I don't know if I buy the claim that Google doesn't give "two hoots" about your privacy, as long as you don't count selling contextual ads as over the line. But anyway, my point is that the "files" I care about protecting are already with Google. For true protection of your local files, on any operating system, encryption is your only answer.
- chaosprophet 17y ago
  I believe with facebook connect, you can maybe hack those different services to work together (firefox extension?). Maybe, I should take a look at that idea. And if google did care about my privacy why read all my mails, and keep track of every webpage i visit from their search engine. I don't buy the "we'll only take a peep, just for advertising" logic. Also, google already having all the files you care about would be more an exception than the norm. I would presume a majority of people keep their files stored on their hard drives. In my opinion, keeping track of my actions in any way goes against google's self stated "don't be evil" policy. Or did Paul Buchheit take that policy with him to friendfeed???

Elepsis 17y ago

Sure: Microsoft with Windows Live and Bing. Microsoft knows who my friends are (Messenger/profile), what I'm saying to them (Messenger), where I'm going (Bing Maps), what I'm writing (Office Live), and what I'm looking for (Bing). Granted Office Live is a beta and there is no Microsoft-branded online feed reader. But a lot of the checklist is covered. If you start checking off every box, you'll find that Yahoo has a fairly similar total suite of properties, too. Google just has the most mind share.