As you might know, even though Google has done some questionable things lately, I’m pretty much all-in with their services. Their strategy worked – offered me a bunch of free services, and now it’s too painful to separate from their magical teat.
Now there’s this Google Buzz thing, which I think is supposed to be a competitor to facebook. It looks like it’s pretty much seamlessly integrated into Gmail, which makes it very easy to use, since I’m already in there. I use Google Reader pretty exclusively for my internet news and kitten photo gathering. People could already follow me in Reader, so I imagine Google Buzz makes that a bit simpler for non-Reader types, or at least makes it easier to absorb new people into Reader.
It’s both kind of awesome and kind of scary that one company is going to have so much power over users’ day to day lives. With very little effort, Google could figure out exactly what my daily routines are each day (GPS on my Google Android phone, Google Latitude, geotagging on my PicasaWeb albums) and tailor advertising specifically to what I do and care about. That’s incredibly cool from a tech perspective. From a privacy perspective? Eek.
For instance, I ran that My Tracks program on my way to work this morning, just to see the route and distance I travel. Google now knows that, between six and seven in the morning during a weekday, I go to a particular building.
As does any hitman you may have hired to off me. Dammit!
