Our country ‘tis of… Google?

I’m a fan of Google, always have been, but even I can tell that Google is well overstepping it’s bounds lately. First was the Google – China issue (which is still underway), you all remember that from my little bet right? This seemingly appears as a front for an NSA – Google partnership. Obviously since the NSA is involved not much information is available about the true intents and possible deals made with that little infringement on freedom. There is plenty of speculation, as well as many government conspiracy theories. This was one partnership that even got me thinking, but like a good little Google monkey, I pushed my fears aside on this one, even though the entire thing prompted EPIC to start an investigation into this matter.

Even more recently, Google has announced, and launched, “Buzz”. Buzz is Google’s new attempt at breaking into the social networking market, and they seem to be purchasing a few new companies as well as integrating existing social networks to help boost their success. Google Profiles is being pushed as well, a new way to use Google search to search through your friends Social networks and information just in case they might have posted somewhere something of value pertaining to your search. The idea of Google profiles isn’t bad, but the real world use is a bit asinine.

Next in line for Google is Google’s news about needing faster internet in the US and proposing a 1Gb fiber optic network and possibly entering in the ISP wars in order to push this. I’m extremely happy that finally someone is trying to push for fiber to home networks and not just sticking with the “last mile” fiber motto. However, the more concerning thing is Google becoming an ISP.

Gmail, Buzz, Google Voice, Google Wave, Google Profiles, Google Web-pages, Google Blogging service, Google IM, Google docs, Google Calendar, Google checkout, Google Phones, Google Books, Google Chrome (web browser and soon Chrome OS), Google web search with logging history which is also under fire and being asked for 2 years of data logging, and many many more. Google effectively controls and house’s more than it’s share of information and communications online, of which most is free for user’s. I appreciate and use many of the services Google offers, however I make no preconception that any of it truly is private. By itself, that is not that big of an issue for me, I’ve nothing much to hide and I realize how truly unsecure most information through any web provider or service really is. But that doesn’t mean there is information I want to be public or controlled by any one source.

Google’s partnership with the NSA is now becoming more alarming, as Google is heavily pushing to be become the world’s information storage bin, granting any rights to the NSA that’s not already in effect and scary enough, is truly just asking for problems. It’s pretty commonly recognized that National Security for any nation, especially Cyber Security, requires extraordinary and brilliant individuals. Most of the cyber criminals we hear about are Pirates and Hackers, usually bypassing copy-right protection, or hacking into servers like Twitter and launching DoS attacks. The type of guys hired by outfits like the NSA and the Chinese Government are the ones you don’t hear about. They are the people that develop the software and control many Botnet’s or find ways to hack TPM chips with house hold cleaners and rust removers. Providing people with any access to our Google Information as dangerous - even in a controlled industry like NSA - as these hackers is beyond scary.

Again I will recount, I was willing to let that ride unless more information became known, until I heard that Google was going to get into the ISP market. By their count, it’s only for a “testbed” and they are not intending to compete, but what kind of company puts down 1.3 billion for a fiber network and enters in a “test” ISP scenario without intent and staying there. Especially when ALL information used, obtained, viewed, or submitted online MUST first go through an ISP. We have come to realize that Google is all about information, and the control thereof. Selecting them as the gateway for this information, while having the NSA lurking in their bed, really is a rather frightening thought.

I’m not huge on conspiracy theories, even though I do like to embellish a bit. However it’s not hard to come to the conclusion that Google is entering worlds that would require FCC and FTC investigation and quite possibly go directly against their “do no evil” motto. Take from that what you will, but it looks ugly.

Google is going to be hard-pressed to remain on the good side, and keep their innocent appeal with the general public. They have started a “human rights” agenda and brought Google, the US government, and now Iran into the mix. Their Internet Freedom line of defense is extremely subjective while their are tempting fate with the NSA and jumping into the ISP market. I will be closely following this outbreak of information Nazism and look forward to watching Google walk this extremely fine line. With Apple watching and exacerbating every move Google makes I’m not sure how much of their business deals will remain secret.

A prize of many

Most people remember the shock and mixed opinions when President Barack Obama won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize very early in his presidency. His stance on nuclear weapons, foreign policies, health care, and peace negotiations in the middle east had obviously made a statement to the committee.

2010: Among the nominee’s for this years Peace Price include Svetlana Gannushkina and her human rights group, Liu Xiaobo, a chinese human rights activist currently imprisoned for "inciting subversion of state power", and of course, the Internet.

The Internet, born in the 60’s under U.S. militaristic oppression, has grown in fame quickly since it’s birth. In the mid-90’s The Internet had reached international acclaim and quickly became a house hold name. The Internet began providing every culture and every person with a voice to be heard. With countless applications and communications services release by the internet, governments, and human rights advocates alike were able to quickly communicate. By the late 90’s the internet was a force to be reckoned, and had began efforts to bring the younger generations into it’s mix, providing every user the ability to use communication devices like Instant Messaging, E-Mail, and a new trend, blogging. It’s development of LiveJournal, a social network, was a big step in collecting the masses and would soon grow at an astounding rate. By 2010 the Internet has become unstoppable. Social networking services like Facebook and Twitter have been able to stop wars and provide data for relief organizations. The Internet was a huge player in the U.S. efforts in the Iran Election. While the Internet is directly responsible for opening up a new type of crime, cyber-warfare, it’s rather minor considering all the good, and the intent mind you, the internet has brought to the world in it’s short 50 years.

We, as in the collective human race, as well as governments and committee's founded by or elected by the human race, have obviously lost touch with reality entirely. At the beginning of this year, U.S. supreme court ruled that organizations should be allowed to provide unlimited resources and funding for “special interest” in U.S. government. This includes all domestic AND foreign organizations, and basically gives them the right to do whatever they please in government and elections, granting them similar power as if their were considered “persons”.

Now, only a short period of time after this completely outrageous decision, something as broad as “The Internet” gets a nomination for Nobel Peace Prize. Why the nominee didn’t consist of something a little more narrow like the founders of twitter/facebook, or the founders of Google, hell even Steve Jobs would be a better candidate, at least he can provide an acceptance speech.

Will you be looking forward to the internet’s gleeful cries if it wins the Nobel Peace Prize? How would you feel about The Internet co-hosting the Grammy’s with political figure Corporation aka “The Man” next year? Spot me your opinion, since mine is already tainted.

Social Networking – Evolution of Identity

Recently I found myself playing a few online games and noticed the API add-in for links to Facebook and Twitter. The concept was pretty basic, attach your login to Facebook to the game to instantly post game achievements to Facebook or Twitter. However this left me pondering the true scope of social networking.

Today, a friend asked me to help him with some basic information and setup on a social network. Without hesitation I began asking questions about needs and deterring from one network in favor of another, and listing a few pros and cons. That’s when it really hit me, social networking is no longer just some toy or fad. I’ve been reading a lot of articles surrounding social networks, the impacts they have, and the media attention some of the bigger name networks command. But it takes something like realizing you are somewhat of a pro when it comes to social network knowledge to really put it into perceptive.

Unlike a few others I know, I didn’t start my first profile until Myspace hit the market. I remember contemplating even joining, summing up the concept of a social network as nothing more than a waste of time and a pointless endeavor, but I joined it anyway realizing I truly didn’t have anything better to waste my time on (I was at work – graves). I began tweaking settings, adding and removing information, connecting with old and new friends and spending hours collecting information. For what? Well, at the time it was merely amusing. I was also getting into web development as a hobby and noticed that I could modify much of my Myspace profile with CSS. This led me to Photobucket and eventually Flickr, because I had to host my photo’s for my background somewhere.

Later came facebook, and facebook apps. Those wonderfully addicting games stole much of my time. I constantly see ads for Farmville, a popular facebook game. I still have my cell phone linked to facebook to get updates and comments directly texted to me wherever I go, with the ability to text in a reponse. Though I don’t use this feature as often as I once did.

Speaking of texting, next huge blocked buster was Twitter. Twitter has become so hugely popular and media effecting that the U.S. Government asked Twitter to reschedule it’s downtime last summer due to elections in Iran. President Obama sent his first “tweet” this year while pushing for relief funds for an earthquake in Haiti. Google has started displaying real-time twitter feeds in their search to help keep a constant, fresh, opinion on any matter you might be wanting to track, from politics to apple events.

Back to my original statement of connecting my game with facebook. I've been starting to see the “connect with facebook” everywhere now, from games to Digg. Usually associated is also Twitter, both performing ways to link your profile for a given site with your accounts on neither or both facebook and twitter.

Google Profiles, has recently launched and allows a user to connect facebook, along with many other social networks in order to use google to quickly search topics in the news and among friends and family. A truly scary and remarkable way social networks are influencing our internet and business experience daily. Jaron Lanier, recently published a book about how our lives are quickly becoming a blip in the net, and we’re becoming a collective hive. A very interesting, if not extreme theory. However with the advent and general push of social networks, that seems to be bringing the internet around to a very real, almost tangible feeling. Being able to not only put a face to an online persona, but also the ability to read about this person in many forms, from a simple facebook profile and friends listings to credit card purchases. I almost seems if we may be giving up TOO much of our personal information and connecting far too many of our daily habits to internet searchable media.

In a very sick and devilish way I’m almost looking forward to watching how the effect of social networks completely alter how the internet functions as the dynamic of reality and  the virtual world collide into one giant mess.

What’s your take? Do you actively engage in social networks? How do they effect you and do you see them as nothing more than a novelty, or a change of times?

What’s in a name?

iPad – The joke of the week. Whether or not the product is any good seems to no longer be the point of discussion.

Now I wasn’t even going to bother writing about the iPad because of the hundreds of articles on the web already discussing it’s qualities, or lack thereof in some cases. However I’ve noticed the trend go from it’s ability to simply remarks about it’s name. I recently stumbled across this article stating that apple may just end up being at the end of a lawsuit over rights to the name “iPad”.

Above the blatant disregard for trademarked names apple obviously cared little about. I can see the need for some companies, like Fujitsu, to defend the name it’s already released a product under. The question I have after this epic failure in brand naming, why would anyone want to retain a products name that even resembles the joke line that has followed this launch? There are times when any press is NOT good press, especially when it results in consumers opinion of a product to be associated with toiletries or hygiene products (unless of course that is your line of business).

I pose this question, why spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of wasted man power to fight for a name that has, within days, become a huge public joke? Someone that knows nothing about the product will now start with a poor first impression that has to then be overcome just to reach a neutral stance before they can be sold.

All companies associated with this name should likely second guess their brand name, entertain the idea of simply settling in court to avoid further “comments from the peanut gallery”. Making a public mess over it will bring press around, but that’s not necessarily a name any of these companies should want being tweeted about. Except loss, take or give credits and hold a board meeting about changing the name.

Stephen Hutcheon of the Sydney Morning Herald stated "Slate is a little bit 'Flintstones,' " referring to the buzz that the iPad may have been called iSlate. Well, Flinstones is far better then Max-iPad. Australia is already commenting on the iPad name. World Wide joke it seems, and that’s good? Apple seems to already hold the license for iSlate, why not put it to better use?

What is your take? Do you think apple should fight to hold the title of iPad? Do you think the joke will just “fade away” as Hutcheon suggests, or is internet buzz still driven by high school like jokes?

Blippy – Why?

Blippy, a new social networking site designed to display personal credit card transactions automatically after purchase. Here we have a great example of peoples complete lack of interest in personal safety and security. Publicly posting up to every transaction, location, price, item, and frequency of use goes in direct violation against what we’ve come to know about personal identity protection.

Imagine, for a moment, that you were the criminal who is attempting to steal someone’s identity. One common known security practice put in place by credit card companies is flagging purchases made that exceed certain limits or go against a purchasing patterns that a customer generally follows. I know my card has been deactivated before because of unusual activity, be it several purchases in a day that don’t match my typical shops, or frequent use in another state. Blippy has made overcoming this security measure effortless. Simply steal a card, check Blippy, follow purchasing patterns.

Let us also take into consideration location tracking. This is already a problem among frequent social network trend like facebook and twitter. Users will frequently update their status via mobile phone or other device on what they are doing and where they are doing it. Aside from being extremely annoying to some, this allows other to track the exact location of an individual. In a more criminal state of mind, the mix of all these networks could allow them to track a target to a bar, wait until they have a few drinks, use social engineering to get close to their intent and lift a purse or card. Then they have free reign for the next several hours or possibly days to buy items following a trend from Blippy before they need to ditch the identity and seek a new one.

Obviously this is an extreme case scenario, but it’s also a case that would be virtually eliminated without constant updates to free and open social networks. Now I’m not against social networks, I use them, however I don’t constantly update them allowing people to track my movements. Most of these technologies help us all stay connected to the world around us and make it easier to pass information along. However we also have a great need arising to be more aware of the adverse effects these outlets could potentially have. 

Blippy is a prime example of social networking going too far. The negative effects present behind this idea far out-weight to positive advertising and social connection it might provide. If you would like to keep your friends up-to-date on shops or items of interest, feel free to post them. Not everything needs to be public and most certainly doesn’t need to be available instantly and automatically. I feel it’s only a matter of time until we see a headline involving theft or even death due to blippy’s publications.

How do you feel about this social networking idea, is it something you would use or feel is a good product? Leave your feedback and opinion.