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Buying Feedburner is HUGE (in an all caps kind of way). For
those of you who don’t know who Feedburner is, they provide custom RSS feeds
and management tools to web-based content publishers.
(I recently discovered that I take for granted understanding
what RSS is and how to use it. There are still many that don’t use RSS. So, if you
are unaware of the power of RSS, please see this video. If you aren’t using RSS, you should. It makes your web
experience SO much more simplified, streaming videos and information directly
into your aggregator. Thus, you can create your own web experience—your own
virtual newspaper so to speak.)
With this purchase, Google now not only learns a ton more
about people, but also buys itself another advertising platform. So, Google
obtains more information and another stream of revenue. They just keep hitting
homeruns. However, with this purchase, there is a bit of another Google “ick
factor.”
Now, I love Google. I even
trust them. However, they are learning more and more about me. They have my
e-mail. They
have my video . They know
where I live.
And now they know everything that I like .
(This is also why eBay’s purchase of StumbleUpon is so smart. Off the record,
Google people will tell you that they view eBay as a serious competitor.)
It’s just all a bit weird to me. Privacy is disappearing.
(It’s possibly already disappeared.)
Good or bad, that’s the reality. Your experience online is becoming more
customized and personalized. By setting up the web up any way that you like, you
get fed what you want to consume. But these giants of the web know what you’re
eating. And it’s heading towards the day when they’ll be feeding you ads about
the things only you like and "want" to
hear about. This is already happening to some degree, though somewhat exaggerated.
Ickiness, strangeness aside, I’m glad it’s Google and not
others. Google is becoming the king of advertising, and more importantly, it is the king of the web. So, at least a progressive company has all of
my information. (In my opinion, only a
progressive company can make these strides and hit these homeruns, but that’s
another post.)
So, is all this a good thing? You
have the crowd saying, “Yeah, it is. If I’m going to constantly be bombarded
with advertising, then it might is well be about things I’m interested in and
want.” And then you have the other crowd saying, “Sure, but what about privacy?
Isn’t a little scary that all these companies ‘know’ what I want?” It’s an
interesting predicament.
In my opinion, with the customizable and personalized
nature of the web, we must concern ourselves with privacy. What if this info
gets into the wrong hands? Does that question even matter, as it's already all been gathered and is in so many hands? Who is looking out for us, the users? These, and many others, are questions for a larger debate,
but certainly questions in deep need of consideration.
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One downside to this is a preposterously boring universe. If you're never introduced to things you hate or things you would only run into by chance, interests (and growth) can be somewhat limited.
As to privacy: One side effect of gathering data on everyone is the cumbersome process of storing and retrieving that information. This is no longer the challenge it once was. What is still somewhat challenging is writing the right sort of questions to get the information you want out of the data ocean. Even this will likely be solved.
Perhaps you cannot have your privacy online, but the story you write about yourself online can be shaped or distorted to your liking. If you can undermine the validity of the information, then you may be able to at least wriggle out of Big Brother's grasp. Afraid they know everything? Cultivate your disinformation and dillute your identity.
Or, take solace in the fact that all of this data is often just one big Electro Magnetic Pulse away from non-existence. Magnetic storage can be very unforgiving.
E.