Google’s new goal: to organise your daily life

[Squirt]

Google’s ambition to maximise the personal information it holds on users is so great that the search engine envisages a day when it can tell people what jobs to take and how they might spend their days off.

Eric Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said gathering more personal data was a key way for Google to expand and the company believes that is the logical extension of its stated mission to organise the world’s information.

Asked how Google might look in five years’ time, Mr Schmidt said: “We are very early in the total information we have within Google. The algorithms will get better and we will get better at personalisation.

“The goal is to enable Google users to be able to ask the question such as ‘What shall I do tomorrow?’ and ‘What job shall I take?’ ”

The race to accumulate the most comprehensive database of individual information has become the new battleground for search engines as it will allow the industry to offer far more personalised advertisements. These are the holy grail for the search industry, as such advertising would command higher rates.

Mr Schmidt told journalists in London: “We cannot even answer the most basic questions because we don’t know enough about you. That is the most important aspect of Google’s expansion.”

He said Google’s newly relaunched iGoogle service, which allows users to personalise their own Google search page and publish their own content, would be a key feature.

Another service, Google personalised search, launched two years ago, allows users to give Google permission to store their web-surfing history, what they have searched and clicked on, and use this to create more personalised search results for them. Another service under development is Google Recommendations – where the search suggests products and services the user might like, based on their already established preferences. Google does not sell advertising against these services yet, but could in time use them to display more targeted ads to people.

Yahoo unveiled a new search technology this year dubbed Project Panama – which monitors what internet users do on its portal, and use that information to build a profile of their interests. The profiles are then used to display ads to the people most likely to be interested in them. FULL STORY

---------------

There is a lot more to the story. I really suggest following the link and reading the whole article.

When will people become anti Google? At what point do you think the majority of people will revolt and say they've crossed the line?

I'm at that point now. I can't stand the fact that they're making billions of dollars by gathering information on me to the point of being able to tell me what to do today or this week, or where to apply for work, etc. When is enough enough?

[gaybucks_chip]

I gotta say this is pretty scary.

Does anyone remember that video thing that was making the rounds a year back that told (from the prospective of being in the future) how Google took control of everything through their mass of data collection efforts?

No matter how much they want to focus on "don't be evil", the corollary to that, "absolute power corrupts absolutely" also comes to mind, and even if Larry and Sergey have the best of intentions, I can't imagine that their demands from stockholders and others won't, over time, compromise their moral and ethical stances.

[Squirt]

I gotta say this is pretty scary.

Does anyone remember that video thing that was making the rounds a year back that told (from the prospective of being in the future) how Google took control of everything through their mass of data collection efforts?

Yes I remember that video made for the Museum of Media History. The video is here http://epic.makingithappen.co.uk/new-masterfs1.html

This video is so close to reality is scary. Looking what Google has to offer now http://www.google.com.au/intl/en/options/ and where they publicly state they are going http://labs.google.com/ it's hard to believe there is an end to what they want to dominate.

Looking at the bottom of the Google labs page you can see where they are looking for new empolyees skilled in, among other things; robotics, genetic algorithms, profiling, machine learning, and more. :ninja:

No matter how much they want to focus on "don't be evil", the corollary to that, "absolute power corrupts absolutely" also comes to mind, and even if Larry and Sergey have the best of intentions, I can't imagine that their demands from stockholders and others won't, over time, compromise their moral and ethical stances.

Well going through previous Google stories online it seems the government is fully supportive of Google, mainly as an information source at this point. Imagine being sued and part of the winning parites demands in discovery are all your Google search records ~ this is reality, judges have actually demanded Google information on individuals.

Now I'm a big believer in if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to worry about, but at some point there is a line between privacy and profits. If Google shared the profits they make off me, with me, it would be a different story, but they don't.

Hasn't Google already crossed the ethical lines by censoring search results for Chinese surfers? That's just one example.. anyone else have any examples?