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Can someone please summarize what the hell this is supposed to be? Sure, DDOS attacks, hacking, etc are bad. What else, exactly, am I supposed to pull away from

Can someone please summarize what the hell this is supposed to be? Sure, DDOS attacks, hacking, etc are bad. What else, exactly, am I supposed to pull away from this horribly designed site?

strebler 11y ago
It seems to be a collection of things to help fight against evil. I couldn't navigate the site (firefox), so I just looked at the source. What I see is: -a reverse proxy -service to scrape various business records, helping journalists analyzing records -anti-phishing tool (browser plugin?) that verifies you're not putting your (Google) password into a wrong site.
- jackmaney 11y ago
  Wow. That's....really underwhelming.
  - kbenson 11y ago
    I don't know. Taken from a sort of "Digital Poverty" point of view, these seem like good sane items to try to reduce that, and they aren't all aimed at one area. They are supporting both human rights (from the internet access as a human right perspective, which may be controversial, but is at least arguable), and fighting corruption. Both noble goals IMHO, and areas where Google's possible contributions line up with their core strengths and values.
jonknee 11y ago
> Google Ideas builds products to support free expression and access to information for people who need it most — those facing violence and harassment. > Google Ideas is a team of engineers, researchers and geopolitical experts who build products to support free expression and access to information, especially in repressive societies. We focus on the problems faced by people who live in unstable, isolated, or oppressive environments, including the billions of people who are coming online for the first time. > With the right tools, we can make the internet more free and open. Many of us take the internet for granted, but for human rights activists, journalists, and artists living under censorship, a free and open internet can be a matter of life and death.
- thieving_magpie 11y ago
  Google is such a strange company. Don't they participate in the suppression of free expression in places like China, justifying it as a cost of doing business? edit: in an effort to not spread bad information, I'd like to retract my statement. It was based on outdated information.
  - joeyspn 11y ago
    "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others." Groucho Marx
  - scrollaway 11y ago
    > justifying it as a cost of doing business They're justifying it as "it's better than nothing at all". Take from that what you will but let's get the facts right.
  - kbenson 11y ago
    This reality of the censorship appears to be well documented[1], and I don't think it's quite as simple as that. Here's the TL;DR Google filtered terms the Chinese government required (by law), but did so by returning results saying that some items were filtered out specifically so users would know their results were filtered. Google never gave any information on who searched specific terms, but after some attacks on their servers in an apparent attempt to get this information, Google announced they would no longer filter searches for China. Talks on how to accomplish this broke down, and Google redirected their China site to Hong Kong, which has no censorship restrictions, but the Great Firewall seems to be filtering results. 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google#China http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google#China
    - thieving_magpie 11y ago
      Good information. It's clear I'm outdated and off-base here. I didn't realize they had such backbone.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
tinbad 11y ago
Not sure what it's supposed to be or who it's for, but looks like the typical crap coming from a big corporation. I'm sure they had tons of synergy meetings about it. Kidding aside, my first impression was wow, what a nice showcase for HTML5/canvas use. Whoever (at Google?) developed the website did an awesome job! Although knowing what's walking around at Google these days, I'm pretty sure it's been outsourced to an agency.
- puranjay 11y ago
  It looks nice but not very useful. The sound autoplays and I have zero intention of listening to whatever whoever is saying. Just give me text damnit.
tangue 11y ago
The marketing copy : "Google Ideas builds products to support free expression and access to information for people who need it most — those facing violence and harassment." The Reality : "WHAT IT DOES : MAKES DATABASES SEARCHABLE"
larrys 11y ago
Well in order to use password alert (for example) you need to use Chrome browser: https://www.google.com/ideas/products/password-alert/ https://www.google.com/ideas/products/password-alert/ It protects by computing something from the way you type your password as opposed to knowing the actual password. Edit: This raises an interesting question. Wouldn't it then be possible to use the same algorithms elsewhere on websites to identify who is even anonymously using the site?
- jkaunisv1 11y ago
  I read some research a few years back where they were able to figure out passwords based on the small delays between hitting each key. eg. it takes me 100ms between typing an "s" and an "e", but 150ms between an "s" and an "8". Unfortunately I don't recall any identifying details. But yes, I think it's totally possible to identify people by their typing "gait" just like it is with people's walking gait.
tarellel 11y ago
I'm probably wrong on this, but it looks to be like Google is trying to release something similar to https://www.cloudflare.com/ https://www.cloudflare.com/. But this appears to be a whole hell of a lot crappier and I'm sure will it will be killed off just as soon as it begins to hit its peak, if it ever gains much traction.
themeek 11y ago
Google Ideas is a means by which US outreach, propaganda, narrative, voice and news sites and apps can be protected when it broadcasts to populations around the globe. US investment in organizations and outlets that align with its strategic goals (or when they are fronts for one department or another) are looked very poorly upon by some countries around the world, which will attempt to take them down - either by legal means, cyber attack or network (e.g. DNS) level blocks. It is a geopolitical project and a very valuable investment for the United States overseas power projection.
- pilsetnieks 11y ago
  Is Cloudflare also a CIA front, in your opinion?
  - themeek 11y ago
    I do not know much about Cloudflare. It was my impression that they were a legitimate business on their own right. They very well may have a partnership to protect CIA operation digital assets, or partner with other departments for other purposes (protecting US assets during the cyberwar). This in itself would not imply that they are a 'front', just a partner. To claim a front you would have to have some reason to believe that CloudFlare was infiltrated by, bought by (like Condolezza Rice at DropBox) or started/managed by a gov't agency. I would not claim to believe that they are a front or a partner. I'm not a good person to ask though, I don't know very much about CloudFlare.
  - jackmaney 11y ago
    Don't be silly. Cloudflare is a digital chemtrail distribution network.
    - themeek 11y ago
      The danger of making such jokes, even when they are funny like yours, is that it clouds legitimate and reasonable discussion about the ways in which US companies support US national security efforts. There is no need to ridicule this poster, as parallel questions about national security efforts and how, where and when US tech companies help are topical, factual and technical.

Can someone please summarize what the hell this is supposed to be? Sure, DDOS attacks, hacking, etc are bad. What else, exactly, am I supposed to pull away from this horribly designed site?

strebler 11y ago

It seems to be a collection of things to help fight against evil. I couldn't navigate the site (firefox), so I just looked at the source. What I see is: -a reverse proxy -service to scrape various business records, helping journalists analyzing records -anti-phishing tool (browser plugin?) that verifies you're not putting your (Google) password into a wrong site.

jackmaney 11y ago
Wow. That's....really underwhelming.
- kbenson 11y ago
  I don't know. Taken from a sort of "Digital Poverty" point of view, these seem like good sane items to try to reduce that, and they aren't all aimed at one area. They are supporting both human rights (from the internet access as a human right perspective, which may be controversial, but is at least arguable), and fighting corruption. Both noble goals IMHO, and areas where Google's possible contributions line up with their core strengths and values.

jonknee 11y ago

> Google Ideas builds products to support free expression and access to information for people who need it most — those facing violence and harassment. > Google Ideas is a team of engineers, researchers and geopolitical experts who build products to support free expression and access to information, especially in repressive societies. We focus on the problems faced by people who live in unstable, isolated, or oppressive environments, including the billions of people who are coming online for the first time. > With the right tools, we can make the internet more free and open. Many of us take the internet for granted, but for human rights activists, journalists, and artists living under censorship, a free and open internet can be a matter of life and death.

thieving_magpie 11y ago
Google is such a strange company. Don't they participate in the suppression of free expression in places like China, justifying it as a cost of doing business? edit: in an effort to not spread bad information, I'd like to retract my statement. It was based on outdated information.
- joeyspn 11y ago
  "Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others." Groucho Marx
- scrollaway 11y ago
  > justifying it as a cost of doing business They're justifying it as "it's better than nothing at all". Take from that what you will but let's get the facts right.
- kbenson 11y ago
  This reality of the censorship appears to be well documented[1], and I don't think it's quite as simple as that. Here's the TL;DR Google filtered terms the Chinese government required (by law), but did so by returning results saying that some items were filtered out specifically so users would know their results were filtered. Google never gave any information on who searched specific terms, but after some attacks on their servers in an apparent attempt to get this information, Google announced they would no longer filter searches for China. Talks on how to accomplish this broke down, and Google redirected their China site to Hong Kong, which has no censorship restrictions, but the Great Firewall seems to be filtering results. 1: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google#China http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_by_Google#China
  - thieving_magpie 11y ago
    Good information. It's clear I'm outdated and off-base here. I didn't realize they had such backbone.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

tinbad 11y ago

Not sure what it's supposed to be or who it's for, but looks like the typical crap coming from a big corporation. I'm sure they had tons of synergy meetings about it. Kidding aside, my first impression was wow, what a nice showcase for HTML5/canvas use. Whoever (at Google?) developed the website did an awesome job! Although knowing what's walking around at Google these days, I'm pretty sure it's been outsourced to an agency.

puranjay 11y ago
It looks nice but not very useful. The sound autoplays and I have zero intention of listening to whatever whoever is saying. Just give me text damnit.

tangue 11y ago

The marketing copy : "Google Ideas builds products to support free expression and access to information for people who need it most — those facing violence and harassment." The Reality : "WHAT IT DOES : MAKES DATABASES SEARCHABLE"

larrys 11y ago

Well in order to use password alert (for example) you need to use Chrome browser: https://www.google.com/ideas/products/password-alert/ https://www.google.com/ideas/products/password-alert/ It protects by computing something from the way you type your password as opposed to knowing the actual password. Edit: This raises an interesting question. Wouldn't it then be possible to use the same algorithms elsewhere on websites to identify who is even anonymously using the site?

jkaunisv1 11y ago
I read some research a few years back where they were able to figure out passwords based on the small delays between hitting each key. eg. it takes me 100ms between typing an "s" and an "e", but 150ms between an "s" and an "8". Unfortunately I don't recall any identifying details. But yes, I think it's totally possible to identify people by their typing "gait" just like it is with people's walking gait.

tarellel 11y ago

I'm probably wrong on this, but it looks to be like Google is trying to release something similar to https://www.cloudflare.com/ https://www.cloudflare.com/. But this appears to be a whole hell of a lot crappier and I'm sure will it will be killed off just as soon as it begins to hit its peak, if it ever gains much traction.

themeek 11y ago

Google Ideas is a means by which US outreach, propaganda, narrative, voice and news sites and apps can be protected when it broadcasts to populations around the globe. US investment in organizations and outlets that align with its strategic goals (or when they are fronts for one department or another) are looked very poorly upon by some countries around the world, which will attempt to take them down - either by legal means, cyber attack or network (e.g. DNS) level blocks. It is a geopolitical project and a very valuable investment for the United States overseas power projection.

pilsetnieks 11y ago
Is Cloudflare also a CIA front, in your opinion?
- themeek 11y ago
  I do not know much about Cloudflare. It was my impression that they were a legitimate business on their own right. They very well may have a partnership to protect CIA operation digital assets, or partner with other departments for other purposes (protecting US assets during the cyberwar). This in itself would not imply that they are a 'front', just a partner. To claim a front you would have to have some reason to believe that CloudFlare was infiltrated by, bought by (like Condolezza Rice at DropBox) or started/managed by a gov't agency. I would not claim to believe that they are a front or a partner. I'm not a good person to ask though, I don't know very much about CloudFlare.
- jackmaney 11y ago
  Don't be silly. Cloudflare is a digital chemtrail distribution network.
  - themeek 11y ago
    The danger of making such jokes, even when they are funny like yours, is that it clouds legitimate and reasonable discussion about the ways in which US companies support US national security efforts. There is no need to ridicule this poster, as parallel questions about national security efforts and how, where and when US tech companies help are topical, factual and technical.