Comments on: Google Accelerates Search http://www.tnl.net/blog/2005/05/06/google-accelerates-search/ Turning Data into Knowledge Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:38:03 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: The Ghost of PT Barnum http://www.tnl.net/blog/2005/05/06/google-accelerates-search/comment-page-1/#comment-9 The Ghost of PT Barnum Sun, 24 Sep 2006 05:12:44 +0000 http://tnl.net/blog/2005/05/06/google-accelerates-search/#comment-9 This is a great program for those users who don't know anything about how computers and/or the internet works, and/or just want to experience the "feel good illusion" of (not really) increased speed by having an entirely useless acceleration program on their hard drive. Still you've got to admire Google's chutzpa here; I'm guessing that it has to be the most hilarious bit of shell-game spyware ever invented by any company in the entire history of computer or Internet use and development. Very clever really, when you consider that the trade off is that users "think" they're getting "increased" internet speed; in exchange for revealing exact the name of every single webpage that you ever visit from the moment that you install Google Web Accelerator until (hopefully) the moment you wise up and remove it. After Google Web Accelerator is installed it does absolutely nothing to improve browsing. Also Google Web Accelerator collects copies of all web pages, (including prefetched pages that you did not even visit), in the Google Web Accelerator cache on your computer. All it does is collect and store a gazillion MB of temp files every time you use it for a session of surfing; and Google gets to know the exact the name of every single webpage that you ever visit for products, news, banking, whatever! This is very valuable information to have; not only does Google know everything you click on, but you get zero in exchange for this info. Finally, Google admits on their own support page that any and all passwords, e-mail addresses etc. you enter in a web form (e. g. when purchasing an item online) will be funneled via their systems. If you enter personally identifiable information (such as an email address) onto a form on an unencrypted web page, the sites will send this information through Google. Had he lived long enough to see this, P.T. Barnum; the person who coined the phrase: "A Sucker is Born Every Minute" would most certainly consider those who download, install and leave this program on their computers to be suckers indeed! This is a great program for those users who don’t know anything about how computers and/or the internet works, and/or just want to experience the “feel good illusion” of (not really) increased speed by having an entirely useless acceleration program on their hard drive.

Still you’ve got to admire Google’s chutzpa here; I’m guessing that it has to be the most hilarious bit of shell-game spyware ever invented by any company in the entire history of computer or Internet use and development. Very clever really, when you consider that the trade off is that users “think” they’re getting “increased” internet speed; in exchange for revealing exact the name of every single webpage that you ever visit from the moment that you install Google Web Accelerator until (hopefully) the moment you wise up and remove it.

After Google Web Accelerator is installed it does absolutely nothing to improve browsing. Also Google Web Accelerator collects copies of all web pages, (including prefetched pages that you did not even visit), in the Google Web Accelerator cache on your computer. All it does is collect and store a gazillion MB of temp files every time you use it for a session of surfing; and Google gets to know the exact the name of every single webpage that you ever visit for products, news, banking, whatever! This is very valuable information to have; not only does Google know everything you click on, but you get zero in exchange for this info.

Finally, Google admits on their own support page that any and all passwords, e-mail addresses etc. you enter in a web form (e. g. when purchasing an item online) will be funneled via their systems. If you enter personally identifiable information (such as an email address) onto a form on an unencrypted web page, the sites will send this information through Google.

Had he lived long enough to see this, P.T. Barnum; the person who coined the phrase: “A Sucker is Born Every Minute” would most certainly consider those who download, install and leave this program on their computers to be suckers indeed!

]]> By: Rubber Bucket http://www.tnl.net/blog/2005/05/06/google-accelerates-search/comment-page-1/#comment-24569 Rubber Bucket Wed, 31 Dec 1969 19:00:00 +0000 http://tnl.net/blog/2005/05/06/google-accelerates-search/#comment-24569 <!--%kramer-pre%-->, with a suggestion that it might now be much higher. Still, this is still in the same ballpark. As for the total number of pages (search engines deliberately try to omit junk), here’s one suggestion from 2 years ago: 1 trillion. That stacks up to 100,000km. While not terribly scientific, I’m going to end with that figure. At least it’s a quarter of the way to the moon. <!--%kramer-post%--> , with a suggestion that it might now be much higher. Still, this is still in the same ballpark. As for the total number of pages (search engines deliberately try to omit junk), here’s one suggestion from 2 years ago: 1 trillion. That stacks up to 100,000km. While not terribly scientific, I’m going to end with that figure. At least it’s a quarter of the way to the moon.

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