Are we giving too much away to Google?

Google has built its empire on providing exceptional services that we all use for free, but with the introduction of Google Profiles, Simon Bennison at Alienation Digital is wondering: Are we giving too much away to Google?

For some it’s an opportunity to have more control over your own image on Google, for others it’s simply another way for Google to have more control over you and your online presence.

Last month, Google set up Google Profile to “give you greater control over what people find when they search for your name”. The tool allows web users to set up an online biography, upload a photo, include links to other social network profiles, and tell people about your location. This is nothing new: MySpace, Facebook, Bebo et al. have been providing this platform for years, but none of them have the control that Google has over the Internet, none have close to the same number of users, and importantly none of them have the diversity of products that Google has. Wired Magazine thinks you should “be afraid”.

For many, the main concern is that Google are developing more and more tools that have the capacity to build complex profiles of all of us. Similar reservations have been voiced many times before: when Gmail introduced advertising that targeted keywords in your emails; when iGoogle gave you the opportunity to unite all of your information sources in one homepage; and when Street View introduced unparalleled interactive maps of our cities.

Read the rest of this article, and more at alienationdigital.co.uk