Comments on: Google's Software Principles: How Broadly Shall We Read Them?

By: Adam Rifkin

Adam Rifkin — Thu, 14 Oct 2004 19:44:34 +0000

Wow, some of these commenters should just… chill.

John, thank you for the insights. I just spent a few hours playing with Google Desktop and I don’t know how I was able to live without it. Perhaps that really wasn’t living.

By: ledsev limsky

ledsev limsky — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 20:37:22 +0000

So it seems that what goes around comes around.

ALL SPYWARE AND ADWARE SHOULD BE OUTLAWED! Period.....

Next these guys will be riding along on toolbars, spyware on spyware

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104_2-5250383.html?tag=zdnn.alert

By: ledsev limsky

ledsev limsky — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 20:14:48 +0000

You say you ARE a paid PR man for Google or you are NOT a paid PR man for Google. Can you let the public know about this.

Also please explain why you protect Google and do not want to expose Google spyware for what it is.

By: John Battelle

John Battelle — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 20:02:23 +0000

Sigh. No, as I have written elsewhere on my site, I own no Google stock, nor do I own any stock in any of the companies I am paying attention to for the purposes of the book. Nor, if you were to closely read what I wrote and what I write, do I run PR for Google. Thanks for the feedback though. I’m flattered you’d think the SEC would give a hoot about me.

By: ledsev limsky

ledsev limsky — Thu, 05 Aug 2004 19:55:11 +0000

I have seen some PR men in my time, for someone who is supposed to be a independent objective journalist, JB is one of the most Bias hype artists ever.

JB, you must hold millions of dollars of stock in Google to promote such hype all the time.

Please state your equity position for all to see or we will make a complaint to the SEC.

By: Fazal Majid

Fazal Majid — Wed, 26 May 2004 06:58:24 +0000

Great, just what we need – more sanctimonious posturing by Google. There is certainly no direct link to Google’s privacy policy and discussion of their use of cookies from either their home page or their search results pages. Their cookies are also not tagged with P3P, nor do they have a P3P privacy policy in the standard location, http://www.google.com/w3c/p3p.xml. I have Firefox set to refuse Google cookies, but how are IE users going to opt out, short of disabling cookies across the board?

By: Massimo Moruzzi

Massimo Moruzzi — Sat, 22 May 2004 06:57:31 +0000

Google is in the bla-bla business on this one. They accept ads from horrible auto-installing software and other similar scams in Italy – no questions asked.

By: giles

giles — Fri, 21 May 2004 15:04:13 +0000

IMHO you are reading too much into this.

Bundling a small exe in your app that brings in a steady stream of money is pretty tempting even to the most well meaning programmers. Google are just having a stab at trying to curb it because its such a short-sighted, shitty way of making a quick buck. (Don`t be evil remember.)

As you say, Google is in the advertising business. No respectable (respected, sorry) company advertises using bundled adware so Google would do well to keep as far away from them as possible.

By: JK

JK — Fri, 21 May 2004 04:18:28 +0000

They are positioning themselves as the people who can help you regain control over your information, and perhaps even one day some of your privacy.

I'm not an all out Google fan and I'm a skeptic on the IPO, but this is a smart way to develop their brand.

By: Rob Leathern

Rob Leathern — Fri, 21 May 2004 03:17:27 +0000

Looking at the top downloads at download.com is always interesting – typically two-thirds are adware/spyware-bundling music/video download programs, the other third are spyware removers. I wrote about this three years ago, coining these types of programs “sneakyware”. Claria is actually one of the better ones in terms of making it clear they’re providing ads to you, there are many far-less scrupulous players out there. The main point is that these companies are often in the same business as Google – they are context providers: they watch a user’s surfing behavior or see her typing in keywords and try to match that behavior (if they’re smart) with an advertiser. Claria’s ads are very effective. Same as Google, they profit from a direct link between content and advertising. The biggest difference is the implicit/explicit degree of sneakiness involved.