Google: The Wrath of Twitter

Since the dawn of online social networking, hell, since the dawn of the internet, the biggest concern of the people has been the protection of private information. No sooner had the internet gone live that there were virus's to worry about that could worm their way into our computers and our homes. Those risks became exacerbated when we started doing pretty much everything online, from banking to taxes. Not, all of our most sensitive and important information was and is being bandied around the ether. Scary, huh? This is nothing that you did not know already, but context is important. Social networking has increased those fears because now it seems as if Facebook,

, Twitter and the gang are sending the personal information intended for our friends and acquaintances to whomever they please. Conspiracy theorists rejoice. It is, say the (ironically) online panic-mongers, Big Brother watching over us, desperate to find out our star sign, our favorite Twilight cast member, our Farmville status and what we think of the X-Factor so that they can use it against us. Joking aside, that information to strategically aim targeted ads at us. People do not like to know things like that. On Wednesday it was announced that Google would be personalizing search results with Google+ information. As a result, Twitter is really peeved and we can expect another round of antitrust scrutiny.

reported that GOOG had no choice because it cannot ignore social information. The info is there, so to use it is to provide an inferior service. Cnet also pointed out that former Google and current Facebook employee Paul Adams said in his book

that, “We are moving away from a Web that connects documents together to a Web that connects people together...We are now seeing the things we have done socially for thousands of years move online. The emergence of the social Web is simply the our online world catching up with our offline world...The social Web will grow, become mainstream, and eventually simply be known as the Web.” In other words, the internet is packed full with social activity. All of us are guilty. If you have ever tweeted something like “At home bored. Get back 2 me if you are bored 2”, then you are guilty. If your Facebook status has read “So angry with my BFF today”, then you are guilty. We are filling the web with personal facts, both inane and important. We should probably thank Google for attempting to organize the whole mess. Note to everyone. If you believe that a piece of information is personal, private, and should only be viewed by a select few, do not put it on the internet.