Google Won’t Pwn Me!
Posted: 29 August 2011 | Author: V. T. Eric Layton | Filed under: Miscellaneous | Tags: emancipation, freedom, G+, Google Plus, Google+, nym wars, privacy issues, pseudonym, social networking, Yahoo |25 CommentsWell, my experiment with G+ and social networking has come to its end tonight.
This is my last post to the stream there:
Alas, it has come to this…
Friends, Googlers, denizens of this realm we call the Internet,
This is my last Google Plus transmission. I have been here since nearly the beginning. I’ve watched this service become the sweet candy that it now is; tempting and replete with potential poisonous side effects.
I admit to always being a bit suspicious of SUPER-MEGA CORP Google. However, my suspicions were just that… suspicions. That is until I came to G+ and witnessed how a large corporate entity once again wipes its anal orifice with anything the little guy has to say when it doesn’t correspond with their business plan.
Privacy is a very important thing, folks. It’s important in your real lives and it’s important (possibly more so) here in this medium. Since the advent of the Internet, there have been those who have hunted, stalked, and bagged the weak, ignorant victims; children, old folks, silly housewives clicking on every pop-up that appeared on their screens. The wolves have targeted them all.
It’s sad that the sheep will trade their anonymity and security for a sweet taste of the candy. Just one taste, please. These same sheep are the ones who are being sheared daily by their governments, their churches, their employers, etc. Now they will be sheared by Google in its neverending feeding frenzy of data; public, private, ALL DATA!
While I have to admit it’s been fun, this little experiment of mine with G+ and my first foray into the social networking scene; I believe I must be moving on. THINK, folks. Use that mass of gray jelly in your head. Analyze all the input. Determine for yourself if it’s worth exposing your real name, personal data, life history, etc. to a giant corporate entity whose NUMBER ONE purpose for existence is to turn a profit.
Well, this is all just a matter of opinion, really. The above is my opinion. I’m no one. I’m nameless. I am pseudoynmous (maybe). 😉
You know where to find me.
It’s been fun…
~Eric
I feel emancipated. Hell, I think I’ll even switch my browser’s search engine to Yahoo.
Later, folks…
~Eric
Nocturnal Slacker v1.0 
Wow Eric, that was a bit of though!
BTW Like your new template.
Yes. I had to say what I had to say.
Glad you like the new theme. I was ready for something different around here. 🙂
Interesting that you implore your readers to “THINK.”
If only you had done some thinking before you signed up for Google+, you wouldn’t look like such a fool now for having promoted it to others before you gave it some thought.
People should think for themselves, as I’m sure you’ll agree. If you read these articles: Google+ First Impressions, A Google+ Follow-up, and A Closet Misanthrope’s of Online Social Networking, you’d see that I wasn’t running around recruiting for the Google Collective. I was giving my 1st hand impressions of my experiences with the service. I was offering people the info they needed to THINK for themselves and make a decision as to whether of not they wanted to try the service. I didn’t twist any arms, nor do I feel the fool.
Thanks for reading/commenting.
~Eric
P.S. I like your email address. +1, as the Googleborg say. 😉
Glad it was of your own choosing. For a minute I thought they dumped you for the V.T. I’ve signed up on Diaspora, and, will probably reduce even further my use of Google+. I agree with points, although it’s hard for me to just shut everything Google down, since I’ve used their services extensively. I have, for the first time, set up Thunderbird, and downloaded all of my archived emails.
I guess I’ll see you back on Linux.com. If you want a Diaspora invite, let me know.
Hiya, Tom! 🙂
Nah… it was all my choosing. It was just time to go. I haven’t completely divested myself of all things Google. I’m still using their email services.
Let me read up a bit on diaspora. It looks interesting. Did you know that Anonymous (the activist group) is working on a social network also? It’s called Anon Plus –> http://anonplus.bombshellz.net/ 😉
Anywho… thanks for stopping by. You know where to find me. 🙂
Later…
~Eric
Now you have even more time for your blogs. Hard to believe you pulled the plug since you were quite active there. Talk to you later –
Well, sometimes ya’ just gotta’ go. 🙂
Yup. More time for a lot of things now. 😉
Don’t be a stranger, Barn.
~Eric
Told you so?
No, that’s not it…
Did you expect anything different?
I know, I know… we have to let our children (and friends) learn their own way 🙂
HAHA! Wait. You did tell me so. 😉
I was hopeful that Google would “do no evil”. What an naive idiot I was, huh?
Found something new, though. You might even like to give it a try –> https://joindiaspora.com/ Let me know. I’ll send you an invitation. 🙂
Sadly, me too Eric. Me too. I am outa there on 9/9 myself.
What’s the significance of that date? Just curious…
I’d recommend DuckDuckGo for search – https://www.duckduckgo.com/ . It’s pretty much aimed at being the alternative for Google refuseniks – it pulls together Bing and Yahoo results with a pretty solid privacy policy in a nice, old-school Google-y interface. You can tweak Firefox to use DDG rather than Google by default pretty easily too – click ‘Manage Search Engines’ under the search engine drop-down list and you can add DDG to the list and make it the default, then go to about:config and change ‘keyword.URL’ to ‘https://duckduckgo.com/?q=’ – that’ll make Firefox use DDG rather than Google for its auto-search thing it does when you just type a word or phrase into the location bar.
Now if only there was a decent substitute for Google Maps. Bing Maps has a few nice features but its place database is nowhere near as good as Google’s, and it doesn’t have a workable mobile interface for the N900…
Thank you, Adam W. for that info. Will definitely check it out. 🙂
~Eric
I like StartPage.com from IXQuick.com. True SSL. NO IP logging, can proxy to most sites from the search. Nice sets of settings to choose from. I always use a simplistic one. I am more a minimalist when it comes to searching.
If you want to change your search engine, try duckduck go (www.duckduckgo.com). Yahoo and bing is the same crap.
Thank you! I’ll give duckduckgo a looksee. 🙂
Thanks for stopping by and reading/commenting.
~Eric
I`d very much appreciate an invite.
Gabriel… invitation sent. 🙂
vat are you using for email?
I hear you, and i never signed up for G+. But vat about Gmail?
Vell, I’ll tell you, vat… I still use gmail for some things. However, I have multiple accounts with other providers… just in case. 🙂
Eric, I dabbled in Google+ (thanks for the invite so I could try it!) but my beef with it is not that it compromises my privacy. Not that privacy isn’t a concern, mind you. Just that Google+ never really did anything for me that the alternatives I already use (mainly, Facebook) offer. If anything it did less.
It would be one thing if the loss of my privacy was offset by some other benefit. But as far as I can tell, there is none to speak of. It’s no better than Facebook in any way, and in some is worse.
So for me it boils down to this simple question: “Why bother?”
Yes, I realize that my use of Facebook has already compromised my privacy immensely. But I watch my boundaries there, and refrain from “over-sharing.” I don’t use any 3rd-party apps on FB (e.g. Farmville) and don’t do things on it like report my location, or when I’m going on vacation, etc. So I’m keeping any damage to my privacy to a minimum. I plan to keep it that way. In spite of all my FB friends who keep telling me to join their Mafia Wars gangs. Nope, not gonna do it … no matter what anyone says.
Well, I never did have a Facebook, Twitter, or Myspace account. Google+ was my first experience with social networking. It was fun. I figured I’d get the hell out while the getting was good, though. They would have caught up with me with their verification and real name BS eventually.
I have checked out most social networking environs for various times. I do still use Twitter, Posterous, blogging of course, Diaspora, and soon to be gone from G+. I have a few others as well like Stumbleupon, Digg, /. of course, but I had great hopes for G+ till I saw what they were really up to and then I tried to think it was OK and finally it just wasn’t OK at all.
Eric asked: What’s the significance of that date? Just curious…
Not sure what the significance of the date is. It’s two days before 9/11. As far as I know, it is just a day when folks could be united when removing themselves from G+.