“We can suggest what you should do next, what you care about. Imagine: We know where you are, we know what you like.” Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google, September 2010 Pilgrim’s Partners: SponsoredReviews.com – Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz!
Tags: build-buzz, CEO, earn-cash, partners, schmidt, Search, size-full-wp-image-21067
Posted September 8, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media
Consumer Watchdog’s InsideGoogle.com has something to say about Google’s disrespect for people’s privacy and they’re saying it at one of the busiest intersections in the world. The group has purchased advertising space on a 540 sq ft Jumbotron in Times Square and they’re using it to blast Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt. The animated feature is called “Don’t be Evil?” and shows cartoon Schmidt spying on children from the innocent trappings of an ice cream truck. In a press release, Jamie Court, president of Consumer Watchdog said; “We’re satirizing Schmidt in the most highly trafficked public square in the nation to make the public aware of how out of touch Schmidt and Google are when it comes to our privacy rights.” The ad asks people to text the word Evil to 69866 to show their support. I guess “666″ wasn’t available. “Don’t be evil” is Google’s unofficial corporate motto, but Consumer Watchdog says that Google isn’t doing a good job keeping the mounds of personal data they collect private. Court says that Schmidt himself is clueless when it comes to privacy and quotes him as saying, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.” Then there’s this, from a recent Wall Street Journal interview; “[Schmidt] predicts, apparently seriously, that every young person one day will be entitled automatically to change his or her name on reaching adulthood in order to disown youthful hijinks stored on their friends’ social media sites. “I mean we really have to think about these things as a society,” he adds. “I’m not even talking about the really terrible stuff, terrorism and access to evil things.” Really? When I started writing about this sign in Times Square I thought it was overkill. Now, I’ve now changed my mind. John M. Simpson, director of the group’s Inside Google Project, suggests a “Do Not Track Me” list that would keep Google, or anyone from tracking your moves online. According to a poll conducted on behalf of InsideGoogle.com, 80% of people in the US supported such a list. They also like the idea of an “anonymous button” that allows individuals to stop anyone from tracking their online searches or purchases and a ban on collecting data on minors. All good ideas, but implementation and enforcement would be very difficult. The trouble is, it’s not just Google who is collecting and / or spreading private data. Schmidt was right about one thing when he mentioned the “youthful hijinks stored on their friends’ social media sites,” and then there are the drunken Facebook updates and the obscenity-filled blog post aimed at your ex. Maybe, before we go throwing stones at Google, we should be looking at how much information we ourselves put online for all to see. Not passing by Times Square anytime soon? You can watch the ad on YouTube.
Tags: consumer-watchdog, facebook, inside-google, make-the-public, mind, press-release, project, really-terrible, reputation, schmidt, Social, Social Media, street, street-journal
Posted September 3, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media
We are one day away from the start of the weekend! While you’re making plans, enjoy these Picks: Schmidt: Google Now Activating 200,000 Android Units A Day [Video] Twitter Preparing “Shout Out” Feature Google Buys Java/Ajax Tool-Maker Instantiations Is anybody out there? Tech companies #fail at social media, says study Eric Schmidt: Every 2 Days We Create As Much Information As We Did Up To 2003 Facebook says ad spending is rocketing Google Buys Slide for $182 Million, Getting More Serious about Social Games
Tags: activating, cloud-hosting, from-the-start, getting-more, google-buys, schmidt, Social, Social Media, weekend
Posted August 5, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media
How are you enjoying that free Android software that powers your iPhone-competing smart phone? I hope you like it enough to reimburse Google $10 a year, because that’s what Google CEO Eric Schmidt is hoping to get out of each Android user: “If we have a billion people using Android, you think we can’t make money from that?” Schmidt asked rhetorically. All it would take, he said, is $10 per user per year. Did you just feel a small pain in your wallet? OK, relax. Google doesn’t want you to actually hand over ten bucks a year to use Android, but that’s the nominal amount it says it needs to earn from each user, in order to add a nice supplement to its search engine revenue. That could come from any kind of distribution deal or premium apps that you might pay for. And any amount it can earn from Android would certainly help it to finally cast off that “ one trick pony ” tag that appears to be relentlessly applied to the search giant. And, based on the number of people that tweet to me about their love of their Android phone, I suspect that Google has a good shot at getting the income from Android it so dearly craves.
Tags: amount-it-says, Android, CEO Eric Schmidt, deal-or-premium, Eric Schmidt, Google, iphone, like-it-enough, Local/Mobile, nice-supplement, schmidt, Search, shot-at-getting, trick pony, year
Posted July 29, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media
It’s been a few weeks since Google inadvertently collected private data from wifi hotspots–while taking its Street View images in Europe and Hong Kong. After initially resisting the requests of the German government to turn over the data, the search giant is now acquiescing to their demands. Eric Schmidt, chief executive, said the world’s largest internet company would hand over information initially to the German, French and Spanish data protection authorities…The company will also publish the results of an external audit into the practice. And now for the part that might make you shart… Mr Schmidt admitted he could not rule out the possibility that personal data such as bank account details were among the data collected. Zoiks! OK, so Google is apologizing and being transparent about the whole situation. That’s good. What’s not good is that an engineer was given–explicitly or implicity–free reign to collect this data in the first place. Worrying, because Google has thousands of employees–each with their own “20% time” that they can invest in creative projects such as, I dunno, collecting your bank account details when you least expect it! But Andy, I hear you cry, any hacker can steal your private info, if you use a public WiFi network! I hear you, but Google isn’t some sleezy hacker sitting outside of your local Startbucks–just hoping you’ll check your credit card statement while sipping your Chai Tea Latte. Nope, Google doesn’t have to sit outside any public WiFi hotspot in order to get its hands on your data. Heck, I suspect half the planets bank account and credit card logins are already sitting on Gmail’s servers somewhere. But this is “don’t be evil” Google we’re talking about, we have nothing to fear, right? Google as a collective? No, not right now. Google as a company that allows employees the freedom to collect personal data without some kind of checks and balances? That’s the scary part. And a part that the search engine apparently has no intentions of policing: The “20 per cent time” during which employees are allowed to pursue their own projects, for example, will remain in place and there is no plan for an overall audit of these schemes. “It would be a terrible thing to put a chilling effect on creativity,” Mr Schmidt said More terrible than collecting personal data from unaware netizens that assumed Google would be the last company they’d have to worry about?
Tags: credit-card, data, freedom, french, legal, planets, possibility, schmidt, Search
Posted June 4, 2010 by cgseo under Social Media