New Comment Policy

Due to spam problems lately, I’m tightening up the commenting policies on this blog a bit to require a registration by each commenter before a new comment is posted.

Sorry about this, guys. I’m still eager to have a robust dialogue about degoogling and other interesting technology-related stuff. I have never — and won’t begin to — filter comments based on whether people agree or disagree with me.

All that said, I don’t want our conversation to be overrun by jerks who don’t intend to add anything constructive in the first place. Just want to be transparent about steps I’m taking to keep them out.

by The Degoogler on February 15, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by The Degoogler on February 15, 2011

http://degoogler.com/?p=446

Hello, Larry!

Like everyone else today, I’m still digesting Google’s startling announcement that Eric Schmidt will step aside as CEO to hand the top spot back to co-founder Larry Page. He’s been a senior member of the management team throughout the company’s run and even had a previous stint as CEO, though it was before Google went public.

One thing we know for sure now: It makes a lot more sense why Larry just bought a massive yacht. Must’ve been celebrating during the time window when he knew of the pending promotion and the rest of us were in the dark. Slick move, dude.

Seriously, despite the ripple the CEO move is sending through the business press right now, I don’t think it will cause a big disruption at Google. Again, Larry has had significant authority of some sort or another all along, so today’s move should offer the company serious continuity.

Whether it will help the company recapture a true startup-like vibe — a goal the New York Times emphasizes in its coverage — remains to be seen.

I’m also curious to see whether there’s any increased tension between Larry and the other remaining co-founder, Sergey Brin. When they had a triumvirate with Schmidt, there could always be a tiebreaker vote on any issue where any two execs disagreed. Journalist Ken Auletta described this dynamic at some length in his book Googled and noted that two-to-one votes were quiet common.

With the ruling team down to just two now, the boys are going to have to settle things among themselves, for better or worse.

by The Degoogler on January 20, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by The Degoogler on January 20, 2011

http://degoogler.com/?p=437

Off Topic

One of my favorite writers, Christopher Hitchens, just wrote a great column for Slate about how to make a proper cup of tea, correcting some questionable advice from Yoko Ono (imagine that!) on the same topic. In making his point, Hitch cites a mutual hero of mine — George Orwell — who also wrote eloquently about tea preparation.

It’s mundane topics like this that often bring out the best in great writers, I think. In particular, it’s oddly moving to see in this case that Hitchens, who is gravely ill with cancer, has retained his trademark prickliness and journalistic attention to detail right to the end.

by The Degoogler on January 3, 2011  •  Permalink
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Posted by The Degoogler on January 3, 2011

http://degoogler.com/?p=432

A Step Toward the Content Business

Looks like YouTube is looking to get into the TV studio business. Hmmm…

by The Degoogler on December 15, 2010  •  Permalink
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Posted by The Degoogler on December 15, 2010

http://degoogler.com/?p=429

EU Launching an Antitrust Investigation of Google

Curious to see what comes of the investigation announced this week by the European Union regarding possible anticompetitive practices at Google.

History suggests that we shouldn’t necessarily expect lasting damage to Google from this. These sorts of accusations are difficult for governments and competitors to prove.

Perhaps the biggest risk to Google, ironically, is all the information that could come out of this. The EU’s accusations revolve around search, which is the company’s bread and butter. If Google is shown to favor its own sites in search results, as the EU alleges, that would be a major blow to the company’s reputation, dating back to the founding days when it was a bedrock idea that search results should be totally user-oriented and beyond commercial interests. That was a core element of the “don’t be evil” ethos.

Also crucial, the EU wants to see Google’s search algorithm to assess all these issues. That’s some of the secretest secret sauce in the history of corporate secrets.

by The Degoogler on December 1, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in The New Microsoft
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Posted by The Degoogler on December 1, 2010

http://degoogler.com/?p=426

Is Lying About the Nexus Two Evil?

There is no way around it: In retrospect, it’s obvious that Google lied like a rug about a followup to its flagship Android phone, the Nexus One. Before, they said you wouldn’t see a sequel. Now you will.

Perhaps the Google guys these days are doing a Clintonian parsing of what “Don’t be evil” means? Maybe it’s OK by them now to do something they consider “bad,” like a white lie, that falls shy of “evil”?

by The Degoogler on November 12, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in Consciousness Raising, The New Microsoft
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Posted by The Degoogler on November 12, 2010

http://degoogler.com/?p=422

Old Timers’ Day in the Privacy Trampling Game

Oh, Microsoft. Just when we think you’ve been surpassed by relative new jacks like Google or Facebook as the creepiest tech company, you remind us that you still have a few tricks left up your sleeve.

I mean, really. An Internet-connected device for our living rooms that constantly records our movements, voices, and facial expressions? I didn’t think you still had it in you.

by The Degoogler on November 4, 2010  •  Permalink
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Posted by The Degoogler on November 4, 2010

http://degoogler.com/?p=419

Does Chrome = a Cheaper Loan?

The Consumerist has a curious post this week on one writer’s experience shopping for a car loan at Capital One’s website. Through trial and error, he discovered that he would get different rates on the loan depending on which browser her used. Chrome came in the lowest, at 2.3%, compared to Firefox’s 3.5% at the high end.

Now, a normal person might read this and think, “Shoot, I’m gonna start using Chrome to save money on my Web-based financial transactions!” But as someone who blogs under a supervillain alias — thus someone who’s perhaps a little less than normal — I ask: What unholy side deal might this signal between Google and the major banks? If they have cut a deal, isn’t that a major violation of “don’t be evil”? I mean, can you get more evil than partnering with big U.S. banks? Just asking.

by The Degoogler on November 3, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in Consciousness Raising, The New Microsoft
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Posted by The Degoogler on November 3, 2010

http://degoogler.com/?p=414

Google Gets Gawked

A quick post here to call your attention to some can’t-miss info elsewhere about the Almighty G, folks. Specifically, the blog Gawker has been on a roll over the last few days with several thoughtful and/or newsy Google-related posts, most of them by staffer Ryan Tate.

All the links below take you to his work, with one exception that I’ve noted:

•Eric Schmidt has made a run of creepy statements about privacy on TV lately, neatly recapped here.

•Courtesy of Fast Company, Gawker re-published a map of Google’s growing legal troubles.

•Seems that Google, already famous for its staff perks, has been rolling out some new ones lately to compete for engineers. Among them is the “free use of ‘runners’ to clean apartments, take out trash, cook dinner, run errands—whatever is needed.”

•Google might buy an entire block of New York real estate for $2 billion. Good grief!

Gawker has famously had strained relations with Apple over the leak of the iPhone 4, reported on the Gawker-owned blog Gizmodo. At the rate things are going lately, maybe they’ll end up equally despised by Google?

by The Degoogler on October 28, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in Consciousness Raising, Privacy, The New Microsoft
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Posted by The Degoogler on October 28, 2010

http://degoogler.com/?p=410

How to Stop Web Bots

Thanks to a comment on Gawker, I just discovered a handy post on developer Jonas Jacek’s blog about stopping bots from observing and capturing data on your Web-surfing habits. Jonas gives a bunch of cut-and-post code that can help you stop not only Google Analytics, but a bunch of other crawlers from companies that are even less scrupulous. Good stuff!

The general topic of Web bots, crawling, and privacy is getting pretty hot these days, thanks in no small part to a series by the Wall Street Journal on the topic, including a story today on a really slimey company called RapLeaf.

I definitely recommend taking a look at the WSJ series, though it’s also worth considering with a grain of salt considering the track record of Rupert Murdoch and his lackeys in bashing the Internet. Granted, they’ve especially been harsh on Google, which yours truly has his own problems with. But Rupert & Co. have really been using Google as a proxy for bashing the whole Web, which I disagree with, big time.

Given that context, my guess is that there’s probably more than a little ax-grinding going on with the recent privacy series, even if it does contain some important factual info. What’s that old saying about a stopped clock?

by The Degoogler on October 25, 2010  •  Permalink
Posted in Privacy, Step-By-Step Degoogling
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Posted by The Degoogler on October 25, 2010

http://degoogler.com/?p=406

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