Recently, privacy has become a huge issue in terms of online services. People are realizing just how much information Google, Facebook, and other services have on their users, and how they data mine the information to turn a profit. Google’s business is not actually search or email, but advertising, with search and email being services offered. As these services become part of people’s everyday lives, the information gathered is becoming more and more valuable. Yet, the privacy concerns people are screaming about seem to be completely misdirected.
Android 2.0 introduced Google Maps with turn by turn navigation. If you’re a gadget geek as well as someone who follows the stock markets, you would have noticed when this was announced that stock prices for Tomtom, Garmin, and other GPS makers dropped. Google Maps with navigation provides navigation, maps search, business search, basically everything you get from Google Maps, in general, with Google’s online mapping. So why did this spell doom for the GPS makers? Google Maps with turn by turn navigation is included with Android 2.0 and all map data is updated frequently at no additional charge. The GPS makers do not update their map data frequently, and most of them charge for their updates.
When Google decided to do business in China, and as a result, follow their rules, I was in disagreement with the move. For Google to do business in China, however, they would have to follow China’s rules. In the business world, to maximize profits, this is a necessary evil, even if it is morally wrong. Often, in business, profits supersede morals. Many people objected to this move, primarily because it involved censorship.
Some years later, Google found itself fighting an issue of morals in China. The issues brought anger from Google, to the point of deciding if it’s best to discontinue business there. While this sounds like it should be a good thing, the morals that Google brought into question is not that of human rights, but rather business ethics and cost. Google detected a massive attack, allegedly from Chinese government sanctioned hackers, and decided this was not acceptable.
Firefox 3.5 is suppose to be the next big thing in browsing, at least from Firefox’s perspective. It has a new javascript engine, and a host of changes all centered around improving performance and security. However, I’ve heard from those that upgraded that it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. There appear to be many addons that cause significant loss in performance in 3.5 that did not happen in 3.0, a couple of which I use.
