Not just for geeks: Here’s a really thoughtful post about Google, culture, and information privacy. From John Gruber. Well worth your time to read. And I like the way he’s unafraid to mention the FACT that people’s personality, ethics and character can lead their decision-making. Good on him. – P

Even more on ad-blockers I was reading over at The Unofficial Apple Weblog, about a new extension for the Safari web browser which ‘cleans’ a lot of the extraneous material from around You Tube videos. Naturally, I’m not the only one annoyed by the ‘creativity’ You Tube’s owner/operators Google engage to interrupt my viewing pleasure. [...]

Hey, I like Google’s new image results page… ‘endless’ images like Bing. Here’s a snapshot of ThePaepae.com‘s result today — although they’re not all actually from ThePaepae.com* (click to enlarge): It provides a nice retrospective, doesn’t it? – P (* Most are. I don’t know how they select which images to display. There must be [...]

Cost of principles? Too pricey, it seems. ‘Tested and found lacking’ would be one way to describe Google’s push-me-pull-you relationship with the Chinese government. Highlighted first in March Google ‘leaves’ China over censorship with worldwide fanfare and admiration that they’d finally grown some stones, it started to unravel a bit (The cost of principles?) and [...]

Not a flattering headline, but I’m sure they have their reasons for the [reported] backpeddle after this brave start back in March: Google ‘leaves’ China over censorship Will Google roll over for China? By Marianne Barriaux | NZ Herald Wednesday Jun 30, 2010 BEIJING – Google has changed tack in China to address government complaints [...]

Well, that’s an interesting turn. Looks like the judge has confirmed the rule as: Go ahead, infringe somebody else’s copyright (or provide a platform for doing so), then stop doing it as soon as the aggrieved rights-holder demands you ‘take it down’ and … ‘sweet, bro!’. Hmm, I don’t think I like that. The role [...]

Google to employees: ‘Mac or Linux, but no more Windows’ by Michael Rose |  TUAW on May 31st, 2010 [US time] We first heard rumors of this policy change a couple of months ago, but now it’s made the papers: the Financial Times is reporting that Google is phasing out the use of Windows internally, [...]

Apropos yesterday’s Google’s tentacles post, see the outrage being provoked even in the home of the free: Germany’s data protection authority (DPA) requested Google audit the WiFi data collected by its Street View cars. The audit revealed that contrary to the company’s claims, for at least three years, Google has been collecting payload data (the [...]

Does anyone else see a problem with this? Please explain: why Google wants your Wi-Fi data LOUISA HEARN | The Age | May 13, 2010 Google Australia will today be sent a “please explain” letter from two local privacy organisations demanding to know why the company has been collecting personal Wi-Fi network data from Australian [...]

Andrew Keen’s opinion column “Copyrights take a back seat to profits on the Web” is worth a read. Even in the digital world, standards are still necessary and some old rules deserve respect. Creators should still be fairly compensated for their work, and we shouldn’t tolerate stealing as the road to profit. And, as much [...]