Google, for most of us - a search engine. Mail account? A browser maybe? (nah, that's Chrome). Oh, I know - maps.
Well, for sure a service provider on a global, mass scale. Our university mail (@pjwstk.edu.pl) is run by google for education (or business). Some of the teachers decided to use the old, PJ-run domain @poljap.edu.pl due to privacy or security reasons (or any other). Students also got a chance to declare which one they want to use. I bet none of you wanted the university-run domain. Why is that? Probably because most of us already use Google services.
Google search engine according to different sources has over 50% of the market share. As the search results are improved based on search history, the amount of users alone stands for the quality. Did you know, that you can access your web-search history if you've been logged to your account at https://history.google.com ? Our university mail has that function disabled as default (at least I think so), but if you have a google account of your own and tend to be logged in, then most probably you can check there your browsing history. The https://www.google.com/settings/accounthistory lets you check what is being saved and turn the settings on/off.
So, whether you store your search history or not, google has it anyways. It is used mainly (so they say) for search optimization, and for other things, like Trends (http://www.google.com/trends/). This is a very powerful tool, and fun to use too! As a sample I've put some of the topics that were mentioned in previous entries here on the blog. It basically proves that running is not hipster, nor original, and that the tattoing buisness is doing pretty well.
Of course this is statistical data and results can vary depending on what you want to prove (that's my opinion on the statistics, sadly). You can use this tool to check if something is gaining on popularity:
or if you simply want to prove to your friend, that batman beats spiderman:
Anyways, privacy has always been a hot topic (not according to trends?) so here are my questions to you:
Do you often use google? If so, what services.If you don't, why? And how can you manage without it?
What is your opinion on your privacy in the internet?
Do you take any measures to protect your privacy?
Do you like the 'trends' tool and my presentation? Have you tried it and want to share some nice graph with us? :)
Sources:
http://thepatrollpl.deviantart.com/art/Applejack-Google-Logo-Install-guide-366942315
Comments
I noticed that when I'm looking for something on the Internet I later see more ads for products of a kind that I've looked for.
You may be interested in:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Drive#Ownership_and_licensing
I am aware that privacy in Internet is low but unfortunately I do nothing special about it because I simply do not know easy ways to do it.
Generally I am against companies as Google because they can force anything they want.
To protect my privacy I try to keep track of information (my personal data) available on the Internet. It's all about awareness of what we do and why we do some specific action on the Internet.
In my opinion Google Trends tool is really interesting and useful when we want to analyse people's behaviour in the Web. Some results are funny, some are shocking, but they all constitute a really great knowledge base to use if want to answer the question 'where is money now?'. It's not big news that every advertising agency is using tools like Trends to plan their campaigns - something that for us is just a 'fun fact' can make someone else rich (if he/she has enough business knowledge and a bit of luck) :)
PS I absolutely love that Applejack Google Doodle! :)
I do - I use gmail almost everyday, google maps often when I need to find some location. Also I use Android operating system on my smartphone, so Im pretty sure I use a lot of other google services being unaware of it.
If you don't, why? And how can you manage without it?
I think I wouldn't manage easily without it and it kinda scares me. Generally, I feel very dependent on technology.
What is your opinion on your privacy in the internet?
I think its hard to keep everything private as using a lot of services (especially social media, or those provided by microsoft and google) almost force you to provide some personal data (they become very annoying if you dont). But its good to keep private informations as private as possible :)
Do you take any measures to protect your privacy?
As I mentioned, I just try to keep private data as private as its possible. I dont use any "anonymizing networks" like TOR or proxies, as its too time/effort consuming for me - I dont have anything to "hide", I just want to remain as anonymous as its possible on the internet.
Do you like the 'trends' tool and my presentation? Have you tried it and want to share some nice graph with us? :)
Yes, I find it very interesting. It's fun to use, but also it's a nice tool for collection valuable statistic information.
In the Internet, I try to stay as anonymous as I can. I use additional apps, that should protect my anonimity. However, all the security actions seems to be just a tilting at windmills.
To be honest, i don't think there is any good search engine out there that can you keep private, if you are normal internet user. You just have to choose one company and surrender them your "soul".
In the meantime, I will answer your questions:
I use google every day. The most commonly their search engine, but I also use youtube, spreadsheets, drive, email and some developer tools.
The privacy in the internet is not an issue for me. Just like privacy in any other situation, to keep privacy one should not share vulnerable information through unsecure connections and with untrusted people.
I don't measure my privacy. I keep remembering to myself about what I don't want to share in public.
Trends tool is a very handy way of making simple market research. It shows interesting facts about what we search, and sometimes it can be surprising.
I would like to share this graph of trends with you, as I find it particularly interesting:
https://www.google.pl/trends/explore#q=tofu%2C%20seitan%2C%20tempeh%2C%20hummus&geo=US&cmpt=q
This one is a comparement within different vegetarian meals.
I'm aware of content I share on the Internet that's why I don't care what Google knows about me. I use almost all google services on daily basis: gmail, calendar, drive, documents, picasa, developer tools, hangouts! So far every of my employers used Google for Business for 'corporate mail'. I also host my personal email with custom domain under Google Apps for domains. And for me it's not a problem that Google knows that much about me. I'm the person who reads term of services before accepting them.
Well, I can't browse the Trends - there's an error: You have reached the quota. However, I haven't used it so far.
Unfortunately we should agree that our privacy online equals zero. We should remember – what goes to the Internet – stays there forever.
Google trends is a handy service which I use when building my portals. The service provides information on which words we should better use while doing SEO.
Search engine, gmail, google docs.
What is your opinion on your privacy in the internet?
It's fading. With our trends and visits being recorded and used you can only be sure that other users don't know who you are.
Do you take any measures to protect your privacy?
Only chrome incognito mode.
Do you like the 'trends' tool and my presentation? Have you tried it and want to share some nice graph with us? :)
No comment about presentation and I don't feel like using them, they would only show me how nerdy I am.
It has also dominated the market. I can compare it to phone systems.
I have windows phone and it's still not easy with apps. On android you can have everything. Even cat talk translator :)
I'm trying to control information about me at the net. I don't use such things like cloud.
I usually have nothing to hide but some can clear their history.
Sometimes I use incognito mode in browser. There are also many firewalls.
Maybe it works.
I'm not really interested in trends tool, just checked it when it was something new.
But your presentation is ok. And i don't want to share it here..
Yes, I do. I use google all the time. Obviously the mos used services by me are googe search engine, gmail and maps. On next place are drive and drive. At work I used to use most of google dev tools, platforms and APIs.
Of course there is always an alternative as for example whole Microsoft services.
What is your opinion on your privacy in the internet?
Privacy in the Internet. It's hard to say.
I assume that if someone really wants get to know something about us, he will do it. Did you read new rules of facebook or even old one ? Or gmail rules ? I think many of us didn't. I think it's better to behave as there would be no privacy in the internet. But of course we should fight for privacy for our private data.
Do you take any measures to protect your privacy?
My private data i try to keen on my own NAS at home and that's all. I don't take any other measures to protect my privacy. I have nothing to hide.
Do you like the 'trends' tool and my presentation? Have you tried it and want to share some nice graph with us? :)
I already used to use few times this tool before. And yes, I like this tool. It's very helpful in collecting some data. I can't come up anything worth sharing with you at the moment.
I use only gmail and google search engine, but I'm convinced that i could totally live without it.
I use gmail because i have very old account that I use in many services, but i could easily switch email in those services if i had to. I have another account on outlook.com, and i think i like it better.
Also Bing, a search engine from Microsoft is not bad, so I don't think that switch would be that painful.
I think we use google services mostly because that we are used to them. Or because we have android phones and we have to.
Google offers us a simple and functional access to e-mail. for every account you can use a number of security so we can feel safe. Google statistics can be something good for companies. This is kind of marketing research and it helps in the development of business. We can see what is better or worse and generally we can know which kind of products sells the best and for what we should pay attention when we want to have own business.
Maps has a lot of functions helpful for Google user. location helps us to find out what the weather like today or for a few days in place where we are now. Of course we can use map for find a place where we want to be. Maps show us travel time from placeA to place B. It is really good function. Google maps sometimes show where we are often and tells us how much time take us go from current location to places that are often visited by us.
As for Trends, I really like this tool and I have already used it a couple of times in my research papers. It's really fun to work with and can give you some insightful data.
Great article, I like to read about technologies news.
Yes of course, Im used to use google search because I often need a lot of information about programming, improve my theoretical skills about it. I need google search to find a lot of things. Despite of this I read a lot of books, and there are a lot of info about cooking, music or fixing cars (sure, I like it).
I know and I am pretty sure that my privace in Internet equals zero, but I am still using it and am not use to worry about it. But... my computer laptop is using only by myself so Im not even worried about that anyone else could read my private datas.
Your presentations is really cool, about currently troubles with about private. Great for reading it.
I like your tool. It's really funny :)
Every day - searching stuff, checking my e-mails and stuff like that.
What is your opinion on your privacy in the internet?
Privacy in the Internet... It's hard to say. I always try to behave, keep my data in "save places"...
Do you take any measures to protect your privacy?
My private data i try to keen on my own External HDD.
Do you like the 'trends' tool and my presentation? Have you tried it and want to share some nice graph with us? :)
I like this tool. It's very helpful in collecting and presenting data. We used it couple of times during different classes at the university.
Well, google runs the youtube now, after the acquisition. Before, google had it's own movie search: google movies :)
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