A recent Google acquisition of DoubleClick for a whopping USD 3.1 billion has turned many heads. The recent past certainly does not fit into Google's traditional non-aggressive attitude towards acquisitions for monopoly in the market. DoubleClick Inc., a spearhead in ad-serving, is only one of many companies acquired by Google. A comprehensive list can be seen here. Beside Google's acquisitions, this article will also explore some changes in Google's philosophy and potential threats to web community.
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Member since:2007-04-29
Member since:2006-06-03
Member since:2006-02-16
"hey scan the emails of their gmail users, and they keep your search history. That makes them evil in my book. In fact, I'd like to find another search engine if someone could recommend a good one?"
Hey dude.... Sweaty Steve Balmar the MS Highschool Football coach say MSNs search engine is better... go use their's and dont let the door hit you and the arse!
Member since:2005-11-10
Member since:2005-07-07
Member since:2005-07-08
"When the American government came knocking for user's data - both Yahoo and Microsoft handed it over without batting an eyelid. Google refused, and took it to court."
Good point, and congrats to Google.
But why didn't they also care for the democratic rights of the Chinese people to get access to free and critical information too?
Member since:2006-05-19
Member since:2006-03-13
I might take issue with the term "evil," but I share some of your concerns. For search, I use Scroogle:
http://www.scroogle.org/scraper.html [Google results]
http://www.scroogle.org/scraper7.html [Yahoo results]
I like Scroogle, because they drop all records of your search after a week.
Then there is Clusty:
http://clusty.com/
Clusty does a very good job as an aggregator, and they are no where near as aggressive in the data collection department.
For e-mail, when you can get full domain hosting for $30 a year, e-mail isn't much of an issue. I find Fastmail one of the best free/pay e-mail services out there.
http://fastmail.net/
Member since:
2005-10-03
They scan the emails of their gmail users, and they keep your search history. That makes them evil in my book. In fact, I'd like to find another search engine if someone could recommend a good one?