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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Friday, December 29, 2006

Firefox developer doesn't trust Google anymore

Mark my words: The hippy love-fest surrounding Google is going to come crashing down as people begin to realize that this company is as vast an evil as anything you can find in the Redmond area. Blake Ross, one of the original Firefox developers, is just figuring this out:

Google lost me today.

Google is now displaying “tips” that point searchers to Google Calendar, Blogger and Picasa for any search phrase that includes “calendar” (e.g. Yahoo calendar), “blog” and “photo sharing,” respectively. This is clearly bad for competitors, and it’s also a bad sign for Google. But I generally support anything that benefits users, including monopolistic packaging. I believe, for instance, that shipping Internet Explorer with Windows was a good move.

Google is predicated on the idea that the democratic structure of the Web will push the cream to the top. Search for “photo sharing” and you should already get the highest quality services. According to Google, Picasa is not one of them. These “tips,” then, can only be a tacit admission of failure: either the company does not believe in its own search technology, or it does not believe its products are good enough to rise to the top organically. I’d guess the latter.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. From Google's sad IE 7 toolbar that actually prevents users from changing the browser's search preferences to the EULA in Google's phishing filter that admits it makes no attempt at all to perserve your privacy, Google is pure evil. That makes their corporate motto both ironic and hypocritical, but mostly it makes us all chumps for using their services. And yes, I use GMail. I'm an idiot.

[ Posted at 9:27 AM | Permalink ]