Googlified

Google today announced that they have renamed “Search History” to “Web History” and added a new feature to it which “makes it easy to view and search across the pages you’ve visited”, that is, they will know what website you have visited and will know the content of the pages. The feature is automatically enabled if you have Google Toolbar installed, using the PageRank indicator.

That’s sad… I have to stop using Web History to protect my privacy until Google makes a separate setting for this feature. :(

What you think about letting Google know all your online activities? Share your thought.

Sandy Kemsley says that she has proof that Google sells users’ mailing addresses:

There is only one place where my name is associated with the mailing address of my wine club, and that’s on Google AdSense. When I received this piece of postal spam at that address, I knew that the company that “does no evil” had sold my name and address to the the scumbags who sent it.

Not talking about the physical spams, selling members’ personal information? That’s EVIL!

[photo by Philipp Lenssen, from SpamGoogle]

Google’s Inside AdWords Blog today announced two changes to the Sponsored Links on the results pages.

First, they have changed the Sponsor Link’s background color to yellow, which they have been testing over the last few months.

Second, they “modified what counts as a click in this box to be consistent with what counts as a click for the ads on the right hand side”, which means “instead of clicking anywhere in the box, users now need to click on the link in the top line of an ad in order to be taken to an advertiser’s site”.

It’s so distracting! Well, that’s what they wanted! Evil !