“A power plant for the Internet”? That’s a bit presumptuous of Google, assigning themselves the position of powering the Internet. It’s like if China would call itself “creators of the computers for the Earth”. In both cases, the viewpoint has technical merit, but it’s a bad sign for the rest of us that they chose that particular way of putting it.
> Every time you check your Gmail, search on Google for a nearby restaurant, or watch a YouTube video, a server whirs to life in one of our data centers.
I see. Hmm, I don’t use Gmail or Google Search, but I do watch things on YouTube. I take this as a sign that I should stop. No real loss – I have other things to do with my time.
I suddenly realize what this reminds me of; it’s that quote from The Matrix:
“The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes.”
I guess the logical conclusion of your line of thinking is that you should stop using the Internet altogether, as there is no telling which sites are using google analytics or are hosted on the app engine, all of which will do the same thing
Please don’t be silly. Just because a person tries to cut down on salt doesn’t mean that the “logical conclusion” is that they should cut out salt completely, or indeed completely eschew all forms of spices or flavorings.
(Also, I block Google Analytics, and as I understand it, relatively few people use the Google app engine compared to other hosting solutions.)
I didn't realize how prevalent Google's JS and font CDNs were until I ran uMatrix for a while. It seems between GA, jQuery, and fonts, 80% of web sites I visit are tied into Google in some fashion.
That is not practical advice. Also, it is disingenous and belittling.
Please don’t belittle someone who just tries to avoid something which they percieve to be harmful in large doses. Do you similarly make fun of vegetarians with comments like “Make sure and stay away from red beets and blood oranges, haw haw!” or “But what if you swallowed a fly by accident? And what about the myriads of microorganisms that exist in everything?”
> Every time you check your Gmail, search on Google for a nearby restaurant, or watch a YouTube video, a server whirs to life in one of our data centers.
I see. Hmm, I don’t use Gmail or Google Search, but I do watch things on YouTube. I take this as a sign that I should stop. No real loss – I have other things to do with my time.
I suddenly realize what this reminds me of; it’s that quote from The Matrix:
“The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now, in this very room. You can see it when you look out your window, or when you turn on your television. You can feel it when you go to work, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes.”