I think Google may have jumped the shark

[fried eggs]

Today I bought a vacation package on Priceline. After purchasing, I went directly to Google Maps to save the address of the hotel I would be staying at. When the hotel pulled up, Google had a tab show up underneath that said "Your reservation for 2 nights" with my check in and check out dates, and a little link under it said "View email for this reservation." Keep in mind, I had not checked my email since booking the trip. Had I checked my email and opened the trip confirmation notice, I'd be a lot less weirded out. Don't get me wrong, it's a cool feature, but it's also very creepy.

[donco]

1. anybody/thing that you

spoke to named Hal?

[Shankapotomus]

2. I'm in the process of dropping Google entirely

They are becoming beyond creepy. Linking all your emails whether you want them linked or not, constantly trying to get your phone number out of you, forcing a Google Plus account on you if you want to comment on YouTube, etc. Google does provide a lot of amazing conveniences but they remind me of the old cartoon of Standard Oil gobbling up the weaker competition in its path except it's everyone's information this time. Facebook too. Google's control seems so all encompassing I can't just drop them in a day. I have to peel my life away from them piece by piece now.

I think the public's mistake was (and I include myself in it) is being fooled into believing to have an online presence we need to keep our content on someone else's website and lose all control of our personal information and what is done with it. But, shock!, we can keep our content and information at our own website and use a cpanel email account that's not being sold to some third party company and filled with ads being shoved in our face. Keeping our content and email at our own domain and under our control. What a novel idea!

I've secured my hosting. The great migration begins.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

7. The thing is, there's SOMEONE out there that can build a better search engine. Google

generally sucks when it comes to search results. I can't remember that last time I searched for something on Google and got an actual usable return. Most of the time I get a couple of lame results followed by results that have nothing but certain words to do with what I was searching for.

If my experience is common, and with the failure of Googe +, and their growing creepiness, including always trying to get my phone number, and with the coming flop of Google Glass (my prediction), Google may be a fad whose day in the spotight will end with the introduction of something better for search. Perhaps not as far a fall as MySpace, for instance, but something less than it is now.

[Shankapotomus]

9. Yea, Google is already less than what they once were

I hate to condemn them because some of the time they are just trying to create a more secure experience for their users. But other times I'm thinking "There's no other reason for insisting on this way of doing this other than to twist more personal information out of me for your advertisers."

What happened to "Don't be evil?"

[Logical]

10. LOL, yea, they don't seem to even know anything about technology! nt

[IronLionZion]

13. Have you tried DuckDuckGo?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DuckDuckGo

[freshwest]

19. I have and use it at times, but most of the responses ship you to google. So there's no difference.

It's not a scraper like the old Scroogle (not shifted to commerical sites, huge search results) which could alter the terms to reject all business results with by adding -com at the end of seraches.

They were great for year and then after google repeatedly trying to shut them off, they finally shut down. The guys who ran it hated google's drive to collect data and the hassle i see online wasn't there.

Now it's gone, altavista was bought by yahoo, which is an idiotic site. And Duck sends me to google who also feeds me back my past viewing history.

[defacto7]

27. Give this a try...

https://startpage.com

It's a google without google... alot like Scroogle.

Where it says Enhanced by Google, look at details. You can do your search by proxy as well. I've used it since Scroogle went down and I like it.

[freshwest]

28. Thanks! Will give it a try. n/t

[Shankapotomus]

33. There is iQuick too

https://ixquick.com

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. Google maps is actually my go to

When doing the where is this fire at? Today I found the actual adress of the fire with a partial adress. But other searches, you are correct. Used to be better.

Ok, ok. I had a few clues from scanner to get me that.



And tomorrow will be another long day.

[bananas]

23. Google won the search engine wars because they acquired dejanews

The other search engines dropped usenet, google bought dejanews.
Now that google is phasing out usenet searches, there's nothing special about it.
I've used google's usenet searches in discussions here on DU about important events in the 1980s.
The ability to search old usenet discussions in specific date ranges was very valuable.
They also added online discussion forums to the search engine.
Now they've screwed it up and hidden it.

[Ex Lurker]

26. DuckDuckGo is an alternative

they're very privacy-aware and don't do the creepy stuff Google does. Unfortunately, I find their searches are not as comprehensive as Google, and I occasionally find myself going back there because the Duck Duck Go results weren't satisfactory.

[freshwest]

20. Please mail me on how to do this. I can't get into my youtube account anymore, google images now

gives wacky results and today gave me 5 search results that said I needed to get another email account, and gmail linked to my yahoo mail account I'd had for years and I can't get into to delete my mail. No telling who they are sharing it with now.

[Shankapotomus]

32. I don't even know where to begin

Why can't you access your YouTube account? Is it a login issue? I'll continue this in PM.

[Godhumor]

3. Wait until you use Google Now and then purchase movie tickets online

My phone will send me a reminder when I have to leave so as not to be late using my gps location, the time of the show and the travel time (including traffic conditions) to get there.

[agent46]

4. Welcome to Internet 2.0

HTML5 is structured for cross platform social network integration. Everyone will know everything about you.

[DavidDvorkin]

5. Google is buying the shark.

[Moonwalk]

14. HA!

Bravo.

[StarryNite]

6. Google+ is widely seen as a failed social network.

Ex Google+ Engineer Says It's Clear That The Product Is Over As A Social Network

Former Google+ engineer Danny Crichton says that the product has ultimately failed as a social network, he wrote on TechCrunch earlier today.

This comes following a report that Google+ will become less of a social product and more of a platform in light of Vic Gundotra stepping down.

Google has denied the death of Google+, saying that Gundotra's departure has no affect on its Google+ strategy.

More at: http://www.businessinsider.com/ex-google-engineer-says-product-is-over-2014-4

[Skip Intro]

8. Don't like it, but they're just warming up. They want your brain. Seriously.

You notice how if you sign out of gmail or google voice or youtube or some other google property, that you're not totally signed out? You have to go to "sign in as a different user" and then click "remove account" and then click the x next to your account name and then click save. Then you're (supposedly) logged out. This is all for your convenience, google says.

There's a Futurama episode that has a gag about ads being inserted into the dreams of the masses. But that's the future on some cartoon show.

Google's future: microphones in the ceiling and microchips in your head

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/googles-future-microphones-in-the-ceiling-and-microchips-in-your-head-8993990.html

Give it five years.

[Shankapotomus]

11. I also noticed that

And you're never truly signed out, even if you've never signed in. I go to YouTube and I constantly see search suggestions based on what I've searched previously. It never used to be like that...I don't want personalized content spoon fed to me. I want to discover what else is out there... not develop tunnel vision.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. Wait till you check out Windows 8....

The map feature asks if you want to use your current location as the default. Click it and it doesn't just pinpoint your town, it pinpoints your HOUSE.

[Egnever]

18. Google now does the same

Also knows where you work and places you visit frequently. The new windows 8 assistant looks amazing too.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

21. I'll stick with Linux....

To me Windoz is an OS for running games.

[Egnever]

22. Nothing wrong with that

Hard to find a linux phone though.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

24. Not at all...

http://www.ubuntu.com/phone/ubuntu-for-android/features

[Egnever]

15. I think it is awesome.

Love the stuff google is doing. There was no person reviewing your email to have that happen I don't see any reason to be freaked out by it.

Google now on my phone does stuff like that all the time. Tracks packages i have shipped for example and notifies me of progress without me doing anything. I love it!

It is the future and I for one cant wait for it.

Having said that I do think congress needs to do some serious internet legislation protecting peoples data. I couldn't care less if the computers are constantly scanning my data automatically looking for ways to help me but there needs to be a line of access that these companies can not cross when it comes to physically reviewing that data.

[Moonwalk]

17. Ah, but those growing up with all this are not creeped out. That's the trick....

...there's a whole generation that is taking all this for granted. They don't value privacy so much as they value expediency and convenience, etc. And I'm not altogether sure I can argue that they're wrong. Cultural values always change with new technology. Which is all to say, yes, it's creepy, but your opinion isn't the one that google values. It values that of those who don't find it creepy because lack of privacy is the norm for them. Meaning, such features will attract rather than repel them and they're likely to use the search engine more rather than less.

[merrily]

31. So that's what they mean when the say "investing in the future."

Great point.

Thought for the day. People who are in their 40s now, were in kindergarten or pre-school when Carter was President.

Or even Reagan.

[Separation]

25. Anyone remember this search engine?

http://www.hotbot.com/

I used that back in the day when it was either yahoo, or AOL. Did get in trouble one day at work once when the last letter of the address was replaced by the letter next to it....had like 30 pop ups. Pretty embarrassing.

[defacto7]

29. Just a general note to readers...

If you want to increase your anonymity a bit, or a lot depending, just flip off your Java Script until you need it. NOT Java, but Java Script. You can do that on your browser prefs or there are add-ons that can put a toggle button on your toolbar somewhere. That will make you much less visible in most cases and you can't be pinpointed.

It also speeds up browsing if you run into the hated quantserve slowdowns.

[merrily]

30. It's all creepy, including the info swap deals between big business and government.

[RandoLoodie]

34. I'm going back to the AOL or the MSN

Remember when all the hubbub about "jacking into the 'net" concerned "avatars" and "virtual reality?"

Google is good product.