Posted on 02/19/2012 11:36:10 PM PST by LegendHasIt
It costs money to be somebody on Google, pony up.
I use startpage, too. i like it.
I realize I was stating the obvious....The government has for a very long time tracked folks, as have commercial trackers. If you have a social security number or driver;s license or bank account....if you pay your taxes....So many things have been tracked and logged and recorded. The books you check out of the library (or used to), the magazines you subscribe to....all of this data about you exists in someone’s file somewhere.
Maybe I am just cynical because my work has always required me to have a clearance so I have always figured lots of folks know more about me than I may even know about myself.
I see what you’re asking. :)
I’m sure they have contact information.
Sounds like a virus to me.
I would do the same thing, system restore. And then make sure your firewall is turned on, with anti-virus and anti-spyware too. You might even need to use safe mode to go in and see what programs are in your startup folder before getting back online (though if you’re reading this it’s too late unless you’re on another computer!).
Google recently changed their privacy policy. I didn’t read through all the fine print but I think it was so they can use more specifically targeted ads when you use their search engine, at least that’s what it superficially means.
But what it really means is the company with “Don’t Be Evil” as its moniker is even more of a threat to our privacy than they used to be.
Yep...
http://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/
I think one has until March 1 to opt out.
I’ve deleted everything google that I can from my computer, even my beloved google earth.
Just ask Ricky about that. Converted his name to a common noun! LOL!
Of course, that feat was not accomplished by paying Google. Rather, it was by fooling Google's search algorithm. This is confirmed by the fact that non-Google searches also uncover the disgusting substance high in their SERPs. From Google's point of view, this is a bug, not a feature. And certainly not a feature Dan Savage would have had the funds to buy!
I've been aware of this sort of thing for decades (I used to have high security clearances too, until I 'retired' from the world, and even back then I was rather privacy sensitive.). This thing from google was just new to me, and a quick web search from an alternative search engine didn't turn up anything that seemed to mention what I experienced.
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On the bright side, a System Restore seems to have cleared up the problem with Spybot being locked out of the files and folders.
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Thank you , everyone, for your replies to my vanity thread.
I'm still never going to use google again, voluntarily, although I know that nearly every web page these days has embedded google stuff in them, and even modifying my HOSTS page won't defeat them all.
That's the front door, where I advertise like a normal party.
But I'm not looking for the front door. You advertised the back door. I want to pay to have my site on top, regardless of worth! That's the opportunity you said existed, but to which you cannot link.
I don’t mind if the government keeps track of me, that is their job.
It only bothers me when some big capitalistic firm like Google is tracking me.
(Uh wait, I’m not on DU now either - this web stuff is too confusing).
Actually - you are NOT stating the obvious. Yes, I know that the gov’t, and companies, and the banks, and the phones, and even the chips in our cars keep track of us. Twice my credit card number has been stolen, and within 24 hours the bank has cancelled it, because it “noticed” purchases outside of my normal buying habits. So - that is good for me.
I’m a little less certain how “real time” the survelance is on my banter on websites. Of course if they ever had reason to, it could all be pulled up I imagine. And I know that some folks have gotten into trouble for making threats on websites. Not sure if someone turns them in, or the threats get picked up directly.
An article I read on “black boxes” for cars was interesting, that most any car now (GPS or not) has a memory chip that will record the last bit of driving information such as speed, braking, etc. And they have been used to recreate crash scenes.
As I said, you’d have to talk to Google on how to do that.
All I said was Google does that. Since I don’t have a website, I’ve never had need to look at how that is done. I just know, from reading websites like Pcmag and computer sites is that web search sites have figured out how to get value from where a website places in a search engine.
I’m highly confident that you’re being cynical, but I can give you some information. I know for a fact (I used to work with one such company), that you can pay to have your site come in in the top 3 ads. BUT, I don’t know of Google offering this service. There are companies that can make sure the algorith puts a certain site at the top of a list, and they’ll monitor and modify their paramaters to keep you there. The company I was associated with charged about $1,000, and that was a bare minimum for certain search terms. If you wanted to have your site be on the top all the time, it would cost you big time. So, in case you are actually serious about if the claim is true, I can verify that you can pay to appear at the top, but I don’t know of Google itself offering that. I do know that private companies will get you are the top, and that it is quite costly. You’ll have to look them up yourself though, I have zero interest in Google, and refuse to use, endorse, or support it in ANY way.
Also, if you haven’t already, switch to Firefox and get the “no-script” add on. You might also like one called (I think) don’t track me, and ad-blocker. These will greatly reduce the odds of having issues in the future.
I use mapquest.com in place of Google Earth. I do believe it’s owned by yahoo, but I’m unsure. You can get the satellite view there too, and in some cases it’s better detailed. (I have seen both when looking at an integrated map on a site, basically one from google earth was embedded in a site I was on, and I compared it to the mapquest that I use). I cannot say it’s any better, we have so little privacy. But Google is certainly going to be the greater of two evils, no matter what two evils you compare.
I wasn’t personally being cynical, because I know its business and product placement is a reality in the marketplace. If you go into a convenience store, that’s part of a chain, or a grocery that is also part of a chain, every product that is prominently placed or placed in the easiest reach has been paid to be there.
I would suggest old fashioned shoe leather to increase web traffic.
I’m told that one of the best ways to increase foot traffic is to make sure that there is something new about it on a daily basis.
This is new. Google determined that a few Malware programs were hijacking browsers to up the traffic to client sites. So they took some of the most commonly used key words and tied them to a ‘check if human’ protocol. Not the most elegant way to handle bots, but effective. In my opinion they should have detected quantity and not the qualities of the searches, If you are sending a search request every half second, you are not human.
Try adding this to /etc/hosts:
127.0.0.1 googleads.g.doubleclick.net
I did that a while ago, and that one line made a noticeable difference in my perceived browsing speed.
Doubleclick's not supposed to slow the internet down, but it does in practice, because your average web author is too dumb to follow guidelines as to its usage. As a result, pages hiccup pending its response, instead of rendering properly, then updating when the ad arrives. Google underinvested in its infrastructure, causing their costly ad-server to become a bottleneck. That, combined with failure on the part of your average webmaster to code around its performance limitations, made it a stand-out web irritant!
Fortunately, the above one-line, code-free solution exists! Now, I don't mind a few ads, as long as they don't slow me down. But doubleclick became a bottleneck. So screw 'em! If GOOG had invested, I wouldn't have bothered. But they didn't, so I edited /etc/hosts, and now it's very unlikely I will ever get around to un-editing it.
They probably detected you are a Conservative which is against their lib policy.
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