p2pnet - rss feed: Google tells users, Take a hike
p2pnet news | Advertising:- Google has, in effect, told its users to take a hike, to put it politely.
It’s hit on a very raw (for users) spot with its Facebook move, all part of its plans to use users in the way a drug addict uses drugs,and with the same lack of control —- ie, in any and every way possible, as often as possible.
“You might recall the Beacon scandal where Facebook shared its users’ online shopping history with all their friends on Facebook,” said California lawyer Will Chen, but, “Instead of learning from Facebook’s mistakes, rumor has it that Google is considering a similar move.”
“Hi everyone,” posted Graham on Wednesday on the Google Reader Help blog.
“I just want to chime in again here with a quick link to our recent post on the Google Reader blog.”
He was referring to the fact Google is, “rolling out a centralized profile system that will provide personalized information to each Google product you use,” as TechCrunch summed it up.
“In particular,” Graham goes on, “I’d like to point out the clarification about when your contacts begin seeing your shared items. Until you click ‘Continue’ in the message informing you of the new feature, your shared items do not automatically appear in your friends’ Reader accounts. Hopefully that reassures anyone one who wanted to unshare their items but worried that they didn’t get to it soon enough.”
Unshare?
“We’re looking at ways to make sharing more granular and flexible, but in the meantime there are several ways to share items without letting all of your Google Talk friends see them (you can also add or remove friends via Gmail or Google Talk),” says Google.
But, “Wow, Graham,” says Modulo Noh in a response, going on:
I think I speak for many of the unhappy people who’ve posted in this thread when I say that this alleviates essentially NONE of our concerns.
But you go ahead and keep thinking that you can somehow convince us that we like this change, instead of actually listening to, you know, what we have CLEARLY and REPEATEDLY said to you.
This “feature” was an ill considered step down the wrong path. The ONLY reason that I, for one, have not IMMEDIATELY deleted all of my accounts with your company is that the GLARING OBVIOUSNESS of this miscalculation will INEVITABLY become apparent to even those with the DENSEST IGNORANCE.
Every day that I wait for some evidence of this realization from your side of things makes me increasingly sad, because I really did think
that Google was smarter than this.
ALL WE WANT IS THE OPTION TO TURN IT OFF.
You want us to stop complaining?
THEN FIX IT, DEAR GRAHAM, DEAR GRAHAM, FIX IT.
However, Modulo Noh would be well advised not to hold his or her breath.
“Google Inc. yesterday said it would consider tweaking a new sharing feature of its Reader service, the only concession thus far to a users’ revolt that’s been building on blogs and message forums for nearly two weeks,” says Computerworld.
Meanwhile, “What the bleep does ‘Granular’ mean?” - wonders Dora Smith, adding:
“No, don’t answer, obviously it’s the native language of Planet Google.”
Also See:
learning from Facebook’s mistakes - $200 Wal-Mart PCs vs cow-power, November 1, 2006
TechCrunch - Google Starts Rolling Out Centralized Profiles, December 15, 2007
Computerworld - Google stands firm on Reader sharing as users’ ire grows December 27, 2007
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