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(found out about this on good old forward-slash-dot.)

CNET did an interesting article
<http://news.com.com/Google+balances+...1032_3-5787483
..html> on Google's CEO Eric Schmidt. Using Google itself, they managed
to dig up all kinds of information about his personal life.

In retaliation, Google have decided they don't want to talk to CNET
reporters any more (brief comment at the end of
<http://news.com.com/Wanted+at+Google...-1030_3-581908
5.html>).

The irony, of course, is that if there was any privacy violation, it was
Google itself that was responsible for it--the CNET reporters merely
looked up information that Google was already making publicly available.
To try and punish CNET for showing up Google's own mistakes seems
somewhat childish.

Google has a reputation for being a tech-savvy company, with lots of
smart people working for it. And lots of ordinary folk seem quite happy
to give it a great deal of power over their lives. But then, all this
was also true of Microsoft, once upon a time. All it takes is a few
missteps like this, and you very quickly fall off the pedestal.

Lawrence D¹Oliveiro wrote:
> The irony, of course, is that if there was any privacy violation, it was
> Google itself that was responsible for it--the CNET reporters merely
> looked up information that Google was already making publicly available.
> To try and punish CNET for showing up Google's own mistakes seems
> somewhat childish.
>
> Google has a reputation for being a tech-savvy company, with lots of
> smart people working for it. And lots of ordinary folk seem quite happy
> to give it a great deal of power over their lives. But then, all this
> was also true of Microsoft, once upon a time. All it takes is a few
> missteps like this, and you very quickly fall off the pedestal.

It is interesting you should make a comparison between Google and
Microsoft. Personally I think the regulators should be hitting Google
harder.

Once you could find an NNTP server containing an archive of newsgroup
postings. If you can find any of the Web sites for these original
archives at all now, you will see notices that they are now part of
Google, and NNTP access is offline.

Google provides no NNTP access, nor does it provide a full set of
headers for messages, blocking all competition in its path. Microsoft
likes to buy up competition too, but at least there are alternatives.

The Other Guy

In article <42f36014$>,
The Other Guy <> wrote:

>It is interesting you should make a comparison between Google and
>Microsoft. Personally I think the regulators should be hitting Google
>harder.

The trouble is, whatever regulators do could be challenged in court, so
they have to make sure their actions stand up to scrutiny by a judge.
This means not acting until they have ironclad proof. Which in turn
means that they have to wait until some damage actually occurs before
acting.

You could change the rules to allow them to get involved sooner, but
then they'll get accused of acting in an authoritarian fashion, just
because they think someone might be reaching the position where they can
act in a monopolistic fashion.

It's a hard tightrope to walk.