Hey.

This testimonial on the Google site puts me (and hope you) in a bit speculative mood.


“My sister-in-law found her mother after 34 years of searching by using Google. I just thought you’d like to know you helped us find our mom !...”

Does Google is now searching for lost relatives?!? I am kidding ……


BTW - Have you lost and found anybody using search engine like Google or others?

Where did you see that testimonial ?
google is so big

Well the obvious way is that the daughter simply inputer her mother's name as a search query and browsed the returned results.

Otherwise, she might have searched the yellowpages.com, classmates.com, any social networking site, or posted a personal ad in a classifieds section. There are also niche search engines that puportedly are great for finding people, though I personally haven't used one. There are, however, alternatives to Google.

Originally Posted by Tatan

“My sister-in-law found her mother after 34 years of searching by using Google. I just thought you’d like to know you helped us find our mom !...”

'Tis always nice to start off the day with a bit of good news...

She must have been delighted, especially after so many long years. Here's hoping for a happy reunion!

I haven't found anyone using Google Search, but other people have found me based on my last name. Apparently there's some giant paint company in the States owned by a guy named Martin Senour; too bad he's not related to me or I could cash in on some inheritance love.

Adam maybe you need to search more and investigate. Perhaps he's a long lost relative. And if not maybe you can convince him he is long enough to put you in the will.

Google is watching us all, thats why the know so much

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6700997.stm

@Allalution very true,

On google being like a "big brother"
Did anybody see/read this
http://masterplanthemovie.com/

Cool video Giorgos. I don't know if that's really the motive behind Google. I tend to think they're motivated more by profit than cooperation with the government, but they can certainly do everything in that video.

It does make you think not only about them, but also about other search engines and other online companies.

It makes me laugh. Over here we have a government systematically removing every last piece of liberty we have with CCTV cameras, Arrests and imprisonment without charge and the changing of laws to make invasion of privacy and unwarranted searches legal, And the clown in that video is worried about google's use of cookies?

Email providers have been looking at our email ever since they started virus scanning and spam detection.

Of course, If we were to ask him about the governments systematic removal of liberty he would probably regurgitate some doublespeak rhetoric like "sometimes he have to exchange liberty for freedom to protect us from terrorists".

Funny that!

I haven't found anyone on google, and nobody has found me.

@stOx everybody talks about what they know to be true, they could not be talking about your truths, you ought to talk about "your truths"

And to take this further,
If everyone acted a little on what they ought to/should be acting on (instead of just pressenting/talking) this world of ours would be a better place to live

I think generally people talk about what they think to be true.
Yes google use applications to look at our emails, So do yahoo. Yes google use cookies to save information on the users machine, So does webmaster-talk. I don't see how this makes google bad. Really they aren't doing anything that other email/SE providers do, Or most sites on the net for that matter. What is untrue about his claims are thier reason for doing it.

How many websites don't collect information on where thier users have come from, What they looked at and how long they stayed?

I can't see how google would use information they collect against us.
They would much rather use it to make money by delivering us adverts they think we would like.

I think videos like are full of FUD designed to frighten the average web user who doesn't realize that every site does exactly the same thing.

Yes stOx, but doesn't it scare you that google alone can actually tell (if they wanted) what you searched, what you visited, for how long, what did you communicate to your friends, who else you contacted etc ... if they combined all the logs from their services ?

No other company in the past has had this much power, and as we all know lots of power CAN lead to corruption (one of the universal truths if you ask me)

This movie does not scare people more than all these apocalypse/end of the world/big brother movies would, it will make a thinking person think not to use exclusivelly the google online services (which is so hard to do, because they are free and all are so extremelly usefull and on top of the competition)

Google know and sees everything... beware

Yes stOx, but doesn't it scare you that google alone can actually tell (if they wanted) what you searched, what you visited, for how long, what did you communicate to your friends, who else you contacted etc ... if they combined all the logs from their services?

It doesn't scare me at all. I doubt anything i have searched for would interest google at all outside of providing me adverts. What are they going to do? Call my mum and tell her i looked at porn?

Google is a company, Thier goal is to make lot's and lot's of money.

I guess you are not afraid loosing your privacy and repercussions that might have so I will put this argument to rest

Yeah that must be it. I'm not frightened of google because i don't mind losing my privacy. That's the only logical explanation. or of course it could be that there isn't actually anything to worry about.

I noticed your fear of this evil empire didn't stop you using thier blogspot service, And undoutable thier search engine, Though.

I thought it was a philosophical argument we were having, but now I see
your ironical remarks and lets say I don't like them.

I said I guess, I did not say MUST, you deduced that!

And if you paid attention I said in the previous comment that their services are very hard to avoid because they are so useful and on top of their competition.

And analogically, one can smoke and ponder whether what he/she is doing is actually good for their health, can't they ?

And i must say that i don't like your insinuation that because i don't buy this "google is evil" conspiracy rubbish that i must not care about privacy. And it was sarcasm, not irony.

The point is i do care about privacy, You would know that if you read my post above about the government, but just because i care about privacy doesn't mean i have to buy every conspiracy that claims some company is going to enslave mankind with 10 years of search queries.

And if you paid attention I said in the previous comment that their services are very hard to avoid because they are so useful and on top of their competition.

I guess you are not afraid of losing your privacy and repercussions that might have. You'd rather have a useful product that your privacy?