“And the monk looked at the scorpion who had just stung him, and as they both began to drown in the river asked, ‘why?’

” ‘I’m a scorpion. You knew that when you picked me up.’ ”

Moral: Any data you did not personally and locally encrypt is not private or secure. Know that before you use Google, Facebook, or any other online services system.

(via DaringFireball.net)

Journal of Felipe Hoffa 141801

It all started on Friday, December 14. Towards the end of the day Google announced a new feature of their feed reader product: They were going to show all your “shared” items to all your Gmail contacts, starting now. No need to opt-in, no way to opt-out. If you didnt react fast all the info you previously shared with your chosen parties could be viewable by everyone you had exchanged e-mails using Gmail data.

When Google Readers team came back on Monday, they found more than 70 complaints in their public forum you can check the whole thread. Given Googles fine reputation dealing with their users privacy they really need this reputation to make their platform possible people were expecting a quick fix and some kind of apollogy, but the official response was appalling. As one user said “wow. this is a politicians answer….i.e. answers that dont address our specific questions/complaints”.

Interesting debate, the 90% cloud / 10% client model pushed by Google, vs. the the far more client-based model traditionally held by Microsoft. Of course, Google’s money (advertising) is as firmly cloud based as Microsoft’s (Windows OS and Office) are client.

The quotes linked to below, however, may give a peek as to who (currently) has the advantage in the next big shift…

Google Gets Ready to Rumble With Microsoft - Pauls SuperSite blog

Fascinating anecdote here: This Grand Prix project was pushed through at Google by a former 15-year Microsoft vet, tired of how slowly the software giant moves. Needless to say, he had an immediate impact on Google and its users: He joined the company in July.

Some serious firepower on the horizon.

Google Reveals 2008 Plans For Google Apps

First, Google Sites, an evolution of Google Page Creator, will launch in 2008. Google Sites will be based on JotSpot collaboration tools and will allow businesses to create intranets, project management tracking, extranets and other custom sites.We should also expect Google Docs, Gmail and Calendar to soon work offline via Google Gears. This has been widely predicted, but it’s good to see it coming more formally from Google note that Zoho, a Google Docs competitor, already has offline functionality via Google Gears.

Awesome idea, if it actually leads to link farms and squat sites being buried by legit searchers, and not just allow them to Digg(c) themselves up via robot or paid clicks…

Straight Out Of Left Field: Google Experimenting With Digg Style Voting On Search ResultsIf you saw this one coming, give yourself a very large prize. Google is experimenting with Digg style voting features on search results that allow users to vote up or bury search results they see.The program, part of Google Labs, works like this:This experiment lets you influence your search experience by adding, moving, and removing search results. When you search for the same keywords again, you’ll continue to see those changes. If you later want to revert your changes, you can undo any modifications you’ve made.At the moment the results of the program will only be stored per user and not applied to the general search index, so that sites buried (”I don’t like”) will not appear in future results for the user, where as sites voted up will stay up. Google Labs notes that “this is an experimental feature and may be available for only a few weeks,” still, who would have thought that Google would even experiment with Digg style social voting.

While I’d guess this would be a US only initiative (though I did used to receive WPTZ, WVNY, and WCAX via antenna…), the idea of the telcos having some serious (and hopefully still non-evil) competition is positively mouth-watering.

Here’s hoping for a hearty hammer-fall, a bellowing “SOOOOOOOLD IIIIIIIT!”, a cheshire-grinning Google, and ubiquitous wireless data for all…

Google may get its open-access wishes after all; will bid in 700MHz auction

In a statement, a Google spokesperson told Ars, “Our goal is to make sure that American consumers have more choices in an open and competitive wireless world. FCC rules require us to reveal our plans by December 3, and we fully intend to do so. In the meantime, we are making all the necessary preparations to become an applicant to bid in the auction.”