I just deleted my Google+ account...

[AHB]

Never used it and worst of all it screwed up my Picasa webalbum, so I only could share pics with my "Circles" and not you guys.   
So here's a BIG middle finger to Google+, which seems to be a dead duck from my pow.. 


Google+ =

[AimlessWanderer]

I hate google (not just the + version) with a passion. I see it as an opt-in global virus/malware.
Sorry to hear you had a rough time mate, and glad you got out. Has your albums been fixed?

[Gareth]

While I don't mind Google as a search engine, I wasn't even tempted to get into +.   Sounds like I wasn't missing much.

[Neil]

I thought about it but my life is busy enough as it is; I didn't feel the need to add an additional layer of complexity. That goes for all the social media to be frank.

I'm turning into a Luddite

... pass me another clog

[Syph007]

I still live in the stone age mostly despite my job being a developer.  No interest in social media, I have little spare time as it is.  I never heard of google+ until now anyhow.... dont think Id need it.

[nuphoria]

It has seemed to have fallen on it's face rather, certainly haven't found a need for it so far anyway.

The cybersphere is totally drowning in social media platforms and many of our kids can't write or form real relationships any more. It's a mess I reckon, leading to a generation of pale, fat, socially incompetent people.... who do you want ruling the world?!

[edcgear]

I tried to, but don't know how to delete it 

[AHB]

I tried to, but don't know how to delete it 

Here you go: Click..
Make sure to re-read before pushing any buttons..  I still have my Gmail and Picasa Webalbum, but all social-stuff is gone..

[jerseydevil]

I'm turning into a Luddite

... pass me another clog

  I used that term the other day at work, and the only response were some quizzical looks.  Somebody said that they'd Google it, I told them that would go against the spirit of the word.  Always looking for a way to make other peoples' day a bit more surreal.......

[edcgear]

I tried to, but don't know how to delete it 

Here you go: Click..
Make sure to re-read before pushing any buttons..  I still have my Gmail and Picasa Webalbum, but all social-stuff is gone..

Thanks... Just blowed it away!!!

[Sparky415]

It has seemed to have fallen on it's face rather, certainly haven't found a need for it so far anyway.

The cybersphere is totally drowning in social media platforms and many of our kids can't write or form real relationships any more. It's a mess I reckon, leading to a generation of pale, fat, socially incompetent people.... who do you want ruling the world?!

Kids 
In my day we didn’t need google to be pale, fat, socially incompetent people

I'm turning into a Luddite

... pass me another clog

  I used that term the other day at work, and the only response were some quizzical looks.  Somebody said that they'd Google it, I told them that would go against the spirit of the word.  Always looking for a way to make other peoples' day a bit more surreal.......

Thats irony for you 

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

I have a Gmail account, and I use it for search, but that's about the extent of it.  As it is, I'm looking for a way to divest myself of Google as much as possible.

Anyone who cares anything at all about their privacy would do well to also drop them ASAP. 

They've been caught red-handed intentionally circumventing the non-tracking features and privacy settings in EVERY single web browser available today, on ALL OS platforms, including Linux, to harvest personal data. 

Google is trying to become Big Brother.  Their supposed motto of "Don't be evil" is the biggest load of hypocritical trash to ever be spoken or see print.  They are the new incarnation of corporate evil, and now make Microsoft look like saints in comparison.

If it were up to me I'd nuke them from orbit immediately.  Seriously though, I am sickened by the fact that the Feds haven't smacked them down for their totalitarian, fascist bullsmurf already.

They are the single biggest threat to individual privacy that currently exists.  Dump anything and everything Google as fast as you can.

[Grant Lamontagne]

You are deluding yourself if you think Apple is any different.

Def

[Mr. Whippy]

Hmm...

I don't see any difference between Google, Apple or FB wrt personal privacy.  They are all corporate and want to command as much of the market as they can, anyway they can.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Yup.... I agree completely. 

Def

[Biru]

I've begun using Duckduckgo.com for my searches. They supposedly don't track and also don't guide your results by past searches. I don't like them as much as Google, but they do reasonably well. Even if they did track me, they'd get precious little juicy content.

I don't trust Google whatever their Doublespeak motto may claim. A news article I read recently mentioned how Google was working around Apple's Safari privacy protocols in order to gather cookie information. Add to that their mapping policy, insistence that they can skirt copyrights and the fact that they can buy out practically any adversary makes them a bit suspect from an Orwellian vantage point.

On the other hand, their tools can certainly be useful. I sometimes wonder, if I could find Google's One Ring, would I take it to Mount Doom...

[AHB]

To be honest I don't really care how much information Google is gathering, it just bothered me how everything
suddenly was pointed to the Google+ account ec. I couldn't make a link for posting my pics at forums anymore. Picasa works fine now, still got my mail so I won't be missing the other parts one bit..  I still have the search engine as standard..

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

You are deluding yourself if you think Apple is any different.

Def

I don't believe Apple is intentionally deceiving users the way Google is.  And they've complied with every single request from the government to disclose their policies, methods, and the nature of the data they do collect, unlike Google, which has stonewalled at every single turning point, and has yet to comply with even one single request from any government agency to reveal their policies and practices.  Apple certain does want to command as much of their market as they can, but they so far have shown no disingenuousness the way Google repeatedly has.

[Medic82]

You do have the issue with Apple secretly tracking you that was discovered last year. But everyone that don’t have smurf for brains knows that Google, FB and Apple is collecting vast amount of data about you and there are options that will protect your data from ever reaching the Big Brother companies. We can all control what information that the companies can get and I believe that we must assume that they are collecting more data than they say they are.

[Syph007]

You do have the issue with Apple secretly tracking you that was discovered last year. But everyone that don’t have smurf for brains knows that Google, FB and Apple is collecting vast amount of data about you and there are options that will protect your data from ever reaching the Big Brother companies. We can all control what information that the companies can get and I believe that we must assume that they are collecting more data than they say they are.

Well said!  If you are worried about privacy, assume they are collecting more than they say.   I dont use any of the social media stuff mostly because I have no reason to, but I can see how it can get out of hand for young people, posting pics/video/personal details many times a day.

[dks]

You do have the issue with Apple secretly tracking you that was discovered last year. But everyone that don’t have smurf for brains knows that Google, FB and Apple is collecting vast amount of data about you and there are options that will protect your data from ever reaching the Big Brother companies. We can all control what information that the companies can get and I believe that we must assume that they are collecting more data than they say they are.

Well said!  If you are worried about privacy, assume they are collecting more than they say.   I dont use any of the social media stuff mostly because I have no reason to, but I can see how it can get out of hand for young people, posting pics/video/personal details many times a day.

as Tulisa found out ... ..     

[MeadMaker]

This is the way I look at it.  The loss of your privacy is the price of admission to the internet.  Almost any access to the net is logged in some way.    That's not to say that you cant effectively minimize your exposure, but in the end your use of the net is on record somewhere.   

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

You do have the issue with Apple secretly tracking you that was discovered last year. But everyone that don’t have smurf for brains knows that Google, FB and Apple is collecting vast amount of data about you and there are options that will protect your data from ever reaching the Big Brother companies. We can all control what information that the companies can get and I believe that we must assume that they are collecting more data than they say they are.

As far as I know, that was in-house for Apple only, and they have since allowed users to not be tracked.  On the other hand, Google sells the tracking info they gather to the highest bidder, and they've lied blatantly about it as well.  It may be a matter of degrees, but when you look at how each company has handled the issues, there's no question as to which is the one doing the true evil.

[dks]

Google, at least the way I use their products, is free; Apple products are not.

It will be naive to expect Google to give you a free product without getting something back to sell and make money so as to develop their products

Apple makes the money directly from you, so again it will be weird if they were collecting and passing on your details etc.

If you get a free car you will not mind if it had advertising on it.
However if you buy it then you would mind.

I remember Altavista, Lycos, Yahoo dominating the search engine world at some point and they were all free and collecting some sort of information, even just to help them give you the most suitable advertisements.

[Mr. Whippy]

I read that Apple has a very paranoid corporate culture.

Google has high security, but a much more open corporate culture.

Here's an example:

From an article on MSNBC:

In early March, Google awarded $60,000 to Russian university student Sergey Glazunov for exploiting three undiscovered flaws in the Chrome browser at the Pwnium competition in Vancouver, British Columbia. Despite this blow to the browser’s phenomenal reputation for security, Google knew that those defeats were no black mark; its team took advantage of the revelation to patch the cracks in less than 24 hours.

In contrast, when famed Mac hacker and security researcher Charlie Miller took on iOS security last November by getting his sneaky InstaStock app through the App Store’s tough approval and code-signing process — and subsequently demonstrating the app’s ability to exploit an unsecured browser loophole to take control of an iPhone — Apple’s response was to ban Miller from the iOS Developer program. He's forbidden from creating any iOS apps for a year.

In the same vein, when gadget blog Gizmodo exposed the infamous iMessage bug that let an iPhone capture messages meant for another phone after “marrying” the other phone’s SIM card, Apple deemed it a procedural mistake on the part of an Apple Store employee.
However, it seems that more fluid security — such as effectively “divorcing” the device from the SIM card upon removal, unless otherwise instructed — would render such mistakes harmless.

[Syph007]

I am a mobile software developer and I have been for 14 yrs now, started on Palm and I've written for all the major players since.

From my perspective Google is 'smart' and offers intelligently designed tools and software, and they should since they employ the most number of PHd's than any other company.  I find apple products and tools insulting to use, and the attitude and closed environment are an instant turn off to me. 

I love Google.. but  I have no interest in social media and don't know or care much about it, but I give a big +++ to their attitude to development and developers, its elegant to me.  That and using Gmail is the bulk of my Google experience.

[Biru]

I'm certainly no Apple fan, though we have several of their products (which work very well- at their price they should) and there's no doubt that Google offers useful, well thought-out products. Their search engine is -for me at least- the most usable in that it seems to offer me  the most relevant results. I used to use Lycos, and when I'd search (I started to type "Googled"...) for "Leatherman", I'd get more hits for homosexual fetishists than multitools. 

But you can't expect that Google- given so much information and power via the internet- is going to act in anything other than Google's best interests. When you use them, they have a reasonable guess who you are via your IP address or- even better- your login ID, maybe they can see your house from a satellite in space, they know what you like via your searches, they can guess your acquaintances, financial dealings and other personal information. To carry dks' analogy further, under the new privacy policy they give you a car, post advertisements on it, follow you around to see where you go in that car and who you visit, then tell the advertisers where you've been so they can change the ad until your next trip.

So, Google is the Evil Empire right now, just as Standard Oil, GM, the Japanese car companies and Microsoft used to be.

I'm going to go take my Xanax now...

 

[Heinz Doofenshmirtz]

For the most part I think this is true, but I also understand that it's Apple's reaction to having had their IP ripped off so much in the past.  Is it any coincidence that Eric Schmidt was on Apple's board during the development of the iPhone and then less than a year after it was released Android was introduced by Google, which looked virtually identical?  Another case in point, although relating to a different company, is that Google has been caught red handed using Java in Android without properly licensing it, and Oracle is now about to bend them over a log and shank them in the crapper for it... to the tune of billions, with a B, dollars.  Google's version of "open" basically means what they want to have access to and what they're willing to give out, compared to actually having a standard set of guidelines.

That said, Apple has also tried to straddle both sides of the fence with the GNU public license.  They've contributed a tremendous amount to the Unix standard (OS X is the only full POSIX 3 compliant commercial OS) as well as the GNU; they've made the source code for the Mach kernel that OS X runs on, as well as the BSD version of unix, public domain and have also donated a CLI version of OS X as well, called Darwin.  At the same time, they've been criticized for making use of contributions to the GNU without properly acknowledging that usage.

But in general, I think that based on their track records, while Apple certainly is no saint, they've been a much better citizen than Google has.

I read that Apple has a very paranoid corporate culture.

Google has high security, but a much more open corporate culture.

Here's an example:

From an article on MSNBC:

In early March, Google awarded $60,000 to Russian university student Sergey Glazunov for exploiting three undiscovered flaws in the Chrome browser at the Pwnium competition in Vancouver, British Columbia. Despite this blow to the browser’s phenomenal reputation for security, Google knew that those defeats were no black mark; its team took advantage of the revelation to patch the cracks in less than 24 hours.

In contrast, when famed Mac hacker and security researcher Charlie Miller took on iOS security last November by getting his sneaky InstaStock app through the App Store’s tough approval and code-signing process — and subsequently demonstrating the app’s ability to exploit an unsecured browser loophole to take control of an iPhone — Apple’s response was to ban Miller from the iOS Developer program. He's forbidden from creating any iOS apps for a year.

In the same vein, when gadget blog Gizmodo exposed the infamous iMessage bug that let an iPhone capture messages meant for another phone after “marrying” the other phone’s SIM card, Apple deemed it a procedural mistake on the part of an Apple Store employee.
However, it seems that more fluid security — such as effectively “divorcing” the device from the SIM card upon removal, unless otherwise instructed — would render such mistakes harmless.

[Pacu]

I like to confuse google by first looking up anfo, then pink midget camel wrestling, then underground porn from Ghana, PETA forums, then finally MT.org

 

also

Google = Skynet
Google = Weyland Yutani
Google = Umbrella Corp.

[mvyrmnd]

So you're the one who keeps searching for "Why does my elbow smell like turnips?" to stack the autocomplete results!