Google, the company you love, wether for the funky logos, the relevant results (if you believe they are), or the culture, according to OpenDNS and with a partnership with Dell, is “turning the page.. in a bad way”
About a year ago Google and Dell announced a partnership to include the Google Toolbar on new Dell computers. At the same time, Google was trying to convince the Department of Justice that changing the default search engine in the (then) new IE7 was too difficult (when in reality it’s really simple). Installing the toolbar meant that users would have Google as their default search engine in IE7. It also meant that Dell and Google would share some of the revenue from the advertising clicks that resulted from these installations, much like The Mozilla Foundation does with its Firefox browser.
The computer hardware business has razor-thin margins which means making a profit is tough. So the opportunity for Dell to get a recurring revenue stream from an existing customer long after the sale of the computer is more than just enticing, it’s huge. It also means a couple other things:
1. Dell and Google have an incentive to make it very hard for users to turn this off.
2. Because users can’t get rid of it, Dell and Google can get away with putting more ads on the page and pushing user-relevant content off the page.They’re now doing both of these things.
Franky says: “This is not the Google I know and love.”
You are too naive Franky. They do whatever they can get away with for a long time. They push the boundaries every time as far as they can and if users complain more then they predict they retract. Remember Florida update, web accelerator, personalization, and few other products/services in between that were pushing boundaries? They are at it again.
Few user comments from OpenDNS:
“This is just bad news all around. Two of the companies that I love and recommend to people the most are acting slimeball-ish on this one…”
“..Rats, now I have to add Google to the gray list.”
“Google’s new slogan - “Don’t be Evil. Be very Evil.”?”
“Hmm, the “Browser Address Error Redirector”? or “GoogleAFE”? are not in my “Add/remove”? list. How can I get rid of this?”
Doesn’t look promising for Google image at all.
(Note: I have 3 dell laptops in the family, I doubt I will have another one)
1 Response to “IS Google Pushing Spyware? And If They Do, Is It Of A Better Quality Then Competitors’ Spyware?”