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May 20, 2005
My Google?
Posted by Dana Blankenhorn
"One of our regular posters here (OK, it was Brad) suggested that our piece yesterday on changes at Google were just a way to track clickthroughs.
We both underestimated it. In the biggest change since the service launched Google will scrap its small clean interface and, just for you (because they like your smile) let you produce a personalized My Google page all your own.
Right now the personalization is quite limited, and shows even more big-media favoritism than critics feared. This is strange, in a way, because rival sites like Yahoo seem willing to "pay for placement" with such sites and could, over time, shut Google out of them unless Google also pays for link access. But that seems to be their choice.
The potential for manipulation I found in yesterday's item clearly remains.
Google is becoming more like Yahoo every day, That's not a compliment.
Comments (2)
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Dana Blankenhorn has been a business journalist for over 25 years and has covered the online world professionally since 1985. He founded the "Interactive Age Daily" for CMP Media, and has written for the Chicago Tribune, Advertising Age, and dozens of other publications over the years.
1. Felix Deutsch on May 20, 2005 10:27 AM writes...
It seems they won't "scrap" anything, but give an option to personalize the Google Search page, giving the option to include preview headlines of various newssources, stock quotes and Gmail message subjects.
So I don't quite understand the whining.
The option to include Gmail message subjects is really badly implemented in the current form though, since it kills privacy (no SSL here).
Permalink to Comment2. Felix Deutsch on May 20, 2005 10:37 AM writes...
In addition, even if you don't opt for inclusion of a preview of your Gmail Inbox, your account name (your Gmail address) is plastered on the personalized page, leaking it to all intermediate systems and networks via unencrypted HTTP.
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