Google Thinks You’re Stupid—and Works to Keep You in the Dark

Daily Beast ^ | May 29, 2012 | Andrew Blum

[re_tail20]

If every technological extension is also an amputation—as Marshall McLuhan said—then I wonder what part of me Google will cut off next.

First there was the part that forgot to include attachments with emails. “Did you mean to attach files?” Gmail helpfully asked one day. “You wrote, ‘I’m attaching’ in your message, but there are no files attached.” Then there was the part that could quote Marshall McLuhan without Googling. Soon, perhaps, I’ll actually be looking for a recipe for “marshmallow fondant”—not the old master himself. We used to say that Google was making us stupid. But now the process is complete: Google knows we’re stupid. Quite how stupid, though, you might not realize.

For the last several years I have been on a quest—see my new book, Tubes: A Journey to the Center of the Internet—to visit the actual, physical Internet: its wires, buildings, and places. We tend to think of infrastructure like this—when we bother to think of it at all—as top secret and obscured, the kinds of places listed in WikiLeaks dumps, protected by rent-a-cops, and generally inscrutable. All those things are undoubtedly true.

Yet the Internet I visited was also a surprisingly friendly place, populated by smart, welcoming people, proud of what they do and eager to tell me about it. Inevitably, when I arrived at some unmarked building crucial to the network’s functioning, the same thing happened: the veil of secrecy didn’t descend, but lifted. My guides happily led me around, and nearly always spent extra time to make sure I understood what I was looking at. This happened dozens of times, all over the world. The cumulative message was clear: It’s my Internet, but it’s your Internet too. You can know how it works. You should know how it works.

The one exception to...

[Incorrigible]

Beware the peeping eyes of the GMail Man!
http://youtu.be/TDbrX5U75dk

[the invisib1e hand]

If I told how google locked someone out of ten plus years worth of their own written work on a blog, because YouTube thinks they aren't old enough to leave comments, would you believe it? You should, and beware anything you do with them.

Screw google, now and forever.

[Zeppo]

Google bought me a free beer once, in New York City, when I was hanging out with a bunch of the employees of their NYC lab.

So they’ve won my loyalty for life.

Well, not really, but I did enjoy the beer (and the good company).

Still need to keep a wary eye out for the potential for massive privacy abuse at their hands.

[Zeppo]

Last week The New York Times reported on Google’s stonewalling of privacy investigations begun by former Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal. “Google resisted providing more information, even in the face of its acknowledgment that the collection was a mistake,” Blumenthal recalled.

Anyone who can and does stand up to the preening idiot Blumenthal is worthy of respect.

[fremont_steve]

Even though their technology is the most intrusive in the world - in this they are acting no different from any other corporation, i.e. keeping their family jewels private. This guy is emitting a big “Waaaaaaaaah! Google wouldn’t let me in... Waaahhh!”

[Boogieman]

Well, if we knew what everyone was searching for on the internet, we’d probably think people were stupid too. Autocomplete provides a glimpse of this sometimes, just type the first few words of a generic question, like “how do I” or “why does it” and see what autocomplete suggests as common endings for those questions.

[OB1kNOb]

Google Thinks You’re Stupid — and Works to Keep You in the Dark

I did not know that - this is the first I've seen of it.............../s

[the invisib1e hand]

Write this down, Harpo: a. Power corrupts. b. Information technology is power.

If you value liberty, Google is your mortal enemy. You just don't know it yet.