Don't Be Eeeeeeeevil!

From the fevered dreams of a madman department (via Instawhatsis): Michael S. Malone posits that Google's new browser "Chrome" is stealth bomb (stealth bomb? Let it go, I'm on a roll) in their silent war to CONTROL THE WORLD's data.

There's actually a rebuttal from a guy AT Google that of the "stealthy" point. I heard about it third hand, from someone who was annoyed by all the other people telling him about it. I downloaded it and--it's interesting. I think it's probably a look at the next evolution in browser design. It's seriously uncluttered.

But of course I realized, in doing so, that this was going to be an entrée into gathering more data on us. Duh. That's where Google makes its money. They are looking to control a lot and they make no secret of it. They're counting on the organization/mining abilities they give you will compensate for lack of privacy.

There were similar issues with Gmail. "Oh, no! Google is going to give you all the space in the world but they're going to pay for it by reading your e-mail!" Well, yeah. But they're not judging you when they do it.

Of course, no one is actually reading your private e-mail. Don't flatter yourself. Nobody cares. There's just an algorithm, like the one that checks for spam, only this one checks for advertising keywords. Besides, don't you know the rule of not sending anything over e-mail you don't want the whole world to read?

Should we watch out for Google? Sure, it's smart to be aware of any company that has such a huge influence on the world, 'net or otherwise. And--most people don't realize this--their company rule is not "Don't Be Evil" it's "Don't Be Eeeeeeeeevil."

So, there's some slack there.