

Google’s Sergey Brin: China, SOPA, Facebook Threaten the ‘Open Web’ - espeed
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2012/04/open-web-google-brin/

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ethank
To Google:

User-agent: *

Disallow: /

threatens their ability to index and serve ads against the open web, which is
really what they mean.

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jlarocco
Not really.

robots.txt has always been based on a good faith.

All the reputable companies abide by it, but I don't doubt for a second they'd
stop reading it if it started affecting their bottom line.

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ethank
You can also actively reject the GoogleBot

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jlarocco
True, but GoogleBot's user agent isn't set in stone.

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dennisgorelik
I think Brin confuses "closed" and "mature". Internet in 2012 is more
accessible than in 1998 in spite of all these extra regulations, because there
is so much more information available and tools are so much better.

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rbarooah
If this data is so valuable, and Google makes enormous revenue out of it, why
shouldn't they pay for it?

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danilocampos
Really, Sergey? Isn't Google a little... young to pull the whole "My inability
to compete with a competitor makes them a force for evil" card?

They must be in worse shape than I'd guessed.

Eh, then again, at 14 years old, it's about time for the crustiness to start
setting in. I guess it shouldn't come as a shock.

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taligent
Sergey is nothing more than a hypocrite. Get back to me when Google:

    
    
      1) Makes its search engine algorithm publicly available.
      2) Stops distorting its search results to favor those with Google Plus content.
      3) Stops allowing Android apps to be created.
      4) Stops releasing proprietary technologies e.g. WebM, WebP.
    

Then you can talk about how Apple and Facebook are bad for the "open"
internet.

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NeutronBoy
the beauty of it is that if you don't like Google, it provides interfaces and
APIs to extract your data in standard formats. You can export emails,
contacts, calendar stuffs, docs, etc.

Facebook allows none of this. Once you're in, you're stuck there.

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tedunangst
Well, apart from the whole "Download Your Information" thing that lets you
download all your data, you're totally right.

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NeutronBoy
Great, I'll provide instructions to users of my app on how to initiate this
(IIRC) manual process that requires them to navigate a maze of FB privacy
pages, confirm via email that yes, they do actually want their data, and then
they can wait for the request to be processed by FB. Then they get emailed a
zip file full of multiple files with everything they've ever done. Hardly the
same as APIs that allow you to export the things you want, on-demand, in a
documented format, seamlessly into alternative applications.

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taligent
Cool. Please by all means show me how to get a list of my circles from Google
Plus ?

Because last time I checked their API was very, very basic.

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jmillikin
<https://www.google.com/takeout/>

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loverobots
I personally do not want my FB or any semi-private account indexed by Google
and shown with tens of of "Is he a child molester, do a background check" type
ads. It sucks for Google but that's life. A lot of FB /Apple data is
searchable, by visiting Facebook and Apple. If I want it on the open, I'll
post it on a blog

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voidr
You are screwed then, because it's indexable by both Facebook and
Microsoft(Bing), they can abuse your data the same way Google or <insert any
other company> here. You get zero security, zero privacy compared to posting
this on a public blog and Facebook gets monopoly over your data, which can
open it up for even more abuses.

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loverobots
I think you are confusing the issue. I am not posting the Coca Cola recipe on
FB expecting it to be private. But it's still a greater degree of privacy than
having it indexed and merged with other info Google may have. Think of saying
something about your neighbor to another neighbor vs posting it on a
newspaper.

There's no monopoly since I can delete it and eventually FB will have to
delete it too (now they hide it instantly). Not so on Google or when snippets
are posted over and over again in blog after blog.

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voidr
> But it's still a greater degree of privacy than having it indexed and merged
> with other info Google may have.

Sorry but I fail to understand the logic here: If you put something on a blog
or whatever, it's indexable by Google and other search engines, if you put it
on Facebook, it's indexable by Facebook and it's partners.

If you post your data on Facebook it's searchable on Facebook(unless probably
if it's marked private, that way it's only used for advertising), so basically
if I want to add your data to my results, I just have to search twice, which
is inconvenient but I wouldn't call it privacy. Heck I could probably write
browser extension in a day that does this automatically.

> indexed and merged with other info Google may have

Facebook has your personal connections and a subset of your browser history,
what can Google add to that to make it even creepier?

FYI: Bing incorporates the Facebook data, they have permission from Facebook,
which means you have precisely zero extra security on Facebook.

But let's talk about security: do you really think your private stuff are
really private on Facebook? If you want to control access to stuff, you are
better off hosting a blog on a private server on an encrypted drive, that way
your private info is really private.

> There's no monopoly since I can delete it and eventually FB will have to
> delete it too (now they hide it instantly).

You seem to confuse monopoly with consumer rights or control. If Facebook
holds 90% of the social data in the world, it's a monopoly, period. Monopolies
are illegal because they have the power to abuse. Also your deleted picture
won't be hidden instantly, it will probably linger on a CDN for years to come.
:)

> Not so on Google or when snippets are posted over and over again in blog
> after blog.

Are you implying that I can't copy paste your facebook post and repost it over
and over again?

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tedunangst
So what you're saying is that my Facebook data is visible in Bing? Do you have
a link?

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robwgibbons
Iroonnyyyyyy

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yaix
>> “If we could be in some magical jurisdiction that everyone in the world
trusted, that would be great,”

Take your servers, move to Iceland.

Uh, no! They have laws protecting personal data.

