Fans of George Orwell will be familiar with the idea of the 'Two minute hate', where everyone is encouraged (obliged) to express their hatred at Big Brother's enemies. I'm beginning to feel we should have one about Google...
First, there was the change to Google's terms and conditions for GMail and Google Docs users. You might be aware that Google 'reads' your emails. That is, it electronically scans all your messages and, based on what keywords and phrases it finds, it will then serve up what it considers to be appropriate advertisements. A few months ago they introduced new terms and conditions, the gist of which is that any files you store on Google Docs (or Google Drive as it is now called) don't really belong to you - they belong to Google. That is, they reserve the right to use the contents of your documents and such. Secondly, there was the change of interface as Google Docs became Google Drive. Okay, you can still view it the old way (for now), but this enforced change reeks of arrogance. Finally, as of October 1st you can no longer export Google Docs into the 'traditional' Microsoft formats of .DOC, .XLS and .PPT. Okay, you could say that everyone should have switched to the more modern Microsoft formats introduced in Office 2007 or at least have file converters, but the reality is that many people haven't. Still on Google Docs... if you are using Internet Explorer 8 you will get a message saying that all of Google Docs features aren't supported and you need to switch to a more modern browser. Microsoft don't do a more modern browser for XP users - IE8 is the final version. Unsurprisingly, Google do, in the form of Google Chrome. Else it means they are putting up two fingers to XP users (WIndows XP still runs on over 40% of the world's PCs).
Finally, there's the business of the Google Toolbar. Almost every PC I go to fix has it installed and guess what? That's right - the user didn't install it, it has mysteriously put itself in place, bit like malware, eh? Quite why anyone would want such a thing is a mystery. I mean, it has the ability to stop pop-ups and to help you complete forms. Hmmm. Might have been useful about a decade ago but every browser since then does this sort of stuff anyway. Perhaps it's just collecting stats on what you are doing.
Google's motto is "Do no evil". Perhaps they should remind themselves of that rather than trying to bully the world into their way of thinking.
(the above contribution is from a reader and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of CTACS).