Just to share a very interesting thread jquindlen discussing about can you boycott Google and how to do that? He is also promoting other search engines like Yahoo and Live too.
It is very exciting to read this post and you will decide whether you will use Google or not.
Google’s motto is “do no evil” which is high and lofty goal for a multi-billion dollar corporation to live up to. At first I thought there might be some truth to their position, but as time has elapsed it has become very apparent that it is nothing more than a clever PR move which has worked very effectively. However, despite their vow, it has become obvious that Google is not special, and just like every other huge corporate entity, they will stop at no bounds, good or evil, to acquire the much coveted dollar.
* 1 - Google is Becoming a Monopoly. At this point Google almost has an effective monopoly on the search industry. Currently, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is investigating Google on allegations of anti-trust practices. There are multiple reasons why this is bad for you, the consumer. At this point, if Google bans a website because it objects to the sites content, that site has now been effectively banned from the internet. With full control of the internet’s search engine, comes the ability to determine exactly what sites are allowed to be seen. As the masses continue to use Google, they give them the power to selectively censor and bury any website without checks and balances. Google is not yet an official monopoly, but essentially the only way to stop them is through a large boycott of their services.
* 2 - Google is a Marketing Company. Another strong reason not to use Google’s search engine, is the fact that they are first and foremost a marketing company. Google retains all their data, and use it to build comprehensive profiles on it’s users, in order to better serve advertisements to them. Reread the sentence now, but insert “XYZ Spyware Company” in place of “Google” Wouldn’t you stop using XYZ Spyware Company’s product if it was apparent they were mining your personal data, selling it to advertisers, and targeting ads designed to match your profile. If you think that’s an inaccurate depiction, realize that Google recently bought Doubleclick, who are not incorrectly labeled as the world’s largest spyware company. Google wants to sell you to their advertisers, and by continuing to use their search services, you’re letting them do just that.
* 3 - GMail (Unreliable, Insecure, & Spyware). GMail recently lost a bunch of people’s email. This is especially troubling for those that use GMail for their record keeping and business uses, where each email has the potential to not only be critical, but also financially and legally critical. Another reason not to use GMail, is the fact that even if you delete an email, Google still keeps it indefinitely. Not only does that have privacy implications, but what happens when/if the GMail database gets hacked and stolen? Credit card numbers, passwords, bank account numbers, and confidential material will be lost and/or stolen. In addition, Google scans the content of all your email and uses the text in the email to serve you contextual ads. Again, sounds like a neat way to say “spyware.
* 4 - Google’s Privacy Policies. Google has the lowest possible grade from Privacy International, a watch dog organization based in London. Google’s privacy policies have been described “an endemic threat to privacy” by the group,
* 5 - The Invasive Google Toolbar. The Google Toolbar is bundled with many applications (Adobe products, Java, Firefox, etc) from numerous vendors, usually with the checkbox to install the toolbar checked by default, much in the same way other malware and malicious toolbars are spread. Users who use the toolbar can also opt-in to Google’s spyware data collection service that records every website they visit. Although it’s still opt-in, the fact that many software publishers are paid to slip in the Google toolbar along with their software is what makes this suspicious.
* 6 - Google Bought DoubleClick. DoubleClick is in the business of keeping track of what you do, and then selling that data to advertisers. They’re a spyware company, and programs such as Spybot Search and Destroy and AdAware both identify their cookies as dangerous. Google’s ownership of this company, combined with their own database, makes them the biggest threat to individual privacy of all time. Google now owns a spyware company, need I say more? Yes.
* 7 - Blogger Steals Ad Revenue From It’s Own Bloggers. Recently there’s been reports that users of Google’s free Blogger service who use the official AdSense widget to monetize their blogs, have a rotating, revenue sharing feature installed that they are not told about in any official or non official document, meaning that Google is stealing revenue from it’s own user base. Wow.
* 8 - Small AdSense Publishers are Treated Like Crap. Recently, there was a bot attack on the proxy sites listed at Proxy.org. What the bot did, was open up each site on the list, look for AdSense ads, and then click-bombed them to try and get the sites banned. Hundreds of webmasters received emails accusing them of fraud. Those that were not banned from AdSense were warned. None of the threats or bans were reversed however, even after a large amount of evidence was shown to the AdSense team, and hundreds of emails were sent in to show them that they were victims and not fraudsters. This is typical of AdSense, who seem to assume that it’s publishers are more likely criminals than actual business partners. Although I have an AdSense account, there is no way I will work with a company who treats it’s partners like criminals.
* 9 - Webmasters Cannot Sell Links. Matt Cutts, a Google employee, has come out against webmasters selling links on their own sites. This is to “protect” the search engine from manipulated results. However, this ignores the fact that link selling is done by all major websites. Slashdot, Forbes, the NY Times, etc all actively engage in link sales. Will Google punish these sites for link selling? Of course not! So why the threat to punish and devalue other sites?
* 10 - Google is Becoming a Web Statistics Monopoly. So now Google is buying feedburner, so not only do they have the RSS usage data from Google reader, but now they also have the largest and most used RSS tracking service, along with their data as well. Combine that with their Analytics data, as well as the information that is collected through AdSense (which includes each user’s IP address, OS, geographical location, previous web page, screen resolution, browser, etc. etc) as well as their other high traffic sites and their usage logs (blogger, youtube, etc) as well as their actual search engine data, and it’s apparent that Google has data on just about every personal and commercial IP address out there.
HOW TO BOYCOTT GOOGLE
So at this point you may be thinking that all of this is fine and dandy, but that there’s no real way to actually follow through with a boycott of Google’s services. If you’re still debating on how that would even help, I want to tell you that traffic is king. Take away traffic from a site, and the site will start hurting. By refusing to send your traffic to Google’s properties, you’re taking a stand against the mining of your data, the infringement and exploitation of your privacy, and the rise of the next corporate monopoly nightmare. Here’s how to boycott Google and love every second of it:
1. Google Search - Since about 2003, Google has been my only search engine. It seemed that MSN, Yahoo, and Ask were simply full of spam sites. Google’s search algorithm was obviously superior. It wasn’t until I decided to ban Google that I gave these alternative search engines a second try. I must say that I am not a fan of Live’s search results, but their image search is by far superior to anyone elses. In terms of text search results though, I was quite surprised with Yahoo and the consistent quality of the results. In my 100% honest opinion, I believe Yahoo serves less spam sites than Google does.
BETTER ALTERNATIVES:
Web search: Yahoo.com
Image Search: Live.com
2. iGoogle - The iGoogle page is a neat way to keep track of all the news that interests you from RSS feeds, as well as to install widgets that display other useful data. The iGoogle interface is clean and AJAX enabled, but that can be blamed on the fact that they stole not only the functionality, but also the look and feel (including the AJAX abilities) from NetVibes, who still manage to do a way better job than iGoogle.
BETTER ALTERNATIVE: NetVibes
3. What about AdSense, AdWords, etc etc? I personally don’t make my off these or need them to advertise, so this doesn’t apply to me. Of course, hitting them in the wallet hurts more than simply boycotting their sites. To start off, use Adblock+Firefox to stop giving Google money for ad impressions. Also, why not try alternative methods of advertising and explore the profits possible.
4. And what about Feedburner, Analytics, etc? There are alternative out there. Remember, Google is amassing data like there’s no tomorrow. Do you really want to hand them over all the traffic, conversions, and RSS subscription details? I personally don’t
Just use targ8 which is powered by google but without the adword ads. If everyone switched to targ8 instead, google would not make the trillions $. Even just 1% would make google take note on how mall they really are. Make the web free again and start using targ8 today. Google but a little less evil….