If you’ve recently passed through Oxford Circus Station, you will have noticed only ONE advert on all billboards at the platform: Google Chrome, and how you desperately need it in your life. In fact, this ad is currently plastered all over the UK, and one must ask the all too obvious question:
Why advertise for a FREE product that won’t make any money?
Ah, but advertising is a business, and an evil one too. Funny how Google’s tagline used to be “Don’t Be Evil”, isn’t it? But that’s not for here.
So if the actual product (i.e. a freaking fifth rank web browser that normal people wouldn’t even touch with a barge pole) doesn’t make money per se, then why spend hundreds of millions on an ad campaign? Why is it so important for Google to be “more present” in your life? We already have:
- Google as our browser home page
- the Google Toolbar
- Google Custom Search on millions of websites
- Google as default search box in Firefox
- not to mention Google Mail, Analytics, Wave, YouTube and all the rest of it
Isn’t that ENOUGH? Do we even go anywehre else these days for our web-search needs?
No my friends, it is NOT enough. Because what Google really want is to track every click you make online. Reading your emails and displaying ads for what you’ve got in your inbox is only the start of Project Sneaky.
“Ads by Google” are the past, we know all too well how to avoid them. But imagine the price tag they could put on your online sufing habits. Think how much money advertisers will shill out if you can tell them when and what a visitor will do on your site!
Google will record EVERY click to EVERY website you’ll ever visit, they’ll store it and sell it on.
You’ll probably be signed in with your ever present Google Account anyway, and you’ll be alive statistic. Your real-time spending habits will be available to anyone with enough money, and you’ll receive more targeted spam than ever before. “Get a new Schlong”, “Russian Brides” and “Viagra” was just the beginning, trust me! Google Chrome will take it to a whole new level.
If you install Chrome, they’ve got you by the balls!
My friend John Williams made another interesting point about Chrome: Google are interested to be a cross platform Operating System for the future. With Microsoft’s dominance waning by the day, and surfers doing more and more complex tasks directly through a simple web browsers, Google yearns to introduce the “Super Browser”: one piece of software from which you can run applications as if they’re installed locally.
You can already use email, word processing, spread sheets, Picasa image manipulation and countless other Google Goodies. I’m waiting for YouTube to replace Final Cut Pro already, and for Picasa Pro to be the new Photoshop! The time is nigh when the question “Mac” or “PC” won’t matter anymore – and Google want to be at the forefront of it all.
I’m begging you… PLEASE don’t give in! Stay away from Google Chrome, and enjoy Firefox while you still can.
isn’t chrome just a wrapper around safari?
In all essence, Google has turned in to another faceless corporation just like Microsoft, except Google did it by producing decent products.
Now-a-days it seems less and less the fact. Google just took Safari, removed all the bloat and said “YOU BETTER INSTALL THIS – YOUTUBE WILL LOOK PRETTIER AND IT WILL LOAD YOUR STUPID POINTLESS VIDEOS FASTER.”
Bullshi*t.
It’s Google… who can say no to them? They know that, you know that… everyone knows that. But, soon enough they will step on enough feet, piss off enough people and produce enough garbage that they will be digging themselves out of the same hole MS has been digging themselves out of for years.
I’m all for making money… But, do it “legitimately” like you have been since day one. Don’t go switching sides half way through the game.
Anyway, I don’t see Chrome catching on…. ever. Unless they create their own operating system and shove the browser down everyone’s throat…. Déjà vu, anyone?
Awesome, agree 100%
I take some issues with this article. First off, Google doesn’t track your every click. That was a bug found on day 1, and they quickly fixed it. You can manually opt-in to send ANONYMOUS usage reports, but by default, they don’t collect anything. I don’t know where you’re getting your info, but it sounds like you’re just trying to scare people. Quit the scare tactics and write the truth. Also, you write that it’s a 5th ranked browser. Actually, in America at least, it has surpassed Safari as the 3rd most popular browser. And it’s by far the fastest growing browser, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it catches up to Firefox within a year or two.
You write about Chrome like you’ve never used it before. I say this because if you have used it, this article would be completely different. You’d be impressed with its speed and simplicity. I’ve been using it for months and I’ll never go back to Firefox. So please, try it and give it a change before you bash on it and “beg” others to “not give in.” I don’t understand your hatred for Google (and any advertising, for that matter…since when was advertising your product considered evil?), but you should probably get your facts straight and actually try a product before you bash on it.
-Graeme
Also, you write:
“We already have:
Google as our browser home page
the Google Toolbar
Google Custom Search on millions of websites
Google as default search box in Firefox
not to mention Google Mail, Analytics, Wave, YouTube and all the rest of it
Isn’t that ENOUGH? Do we even go anywehre else these days for our web-search needs?”
You use all those because Google makes quality products! Nobody is forcing you to use them, but you do because you’re satisfied with your experiences with them. So the question is really why NOT try more Google products? If a company has a consistent track record of great products, why is that a bad thing? Shouldn’t that just be more incentive to try their new stuff?
Also, you write, “Your real-time spending habits will be available to anyone with enough money, and you’ll receive more targeted spam than ever before.”
Google feeds you ads, not spam! In fact, one of Gmail’s most notable features is its excellent spam filter! They don’t take your info and sell it to other companies. You’re so ridiculous, I can’t even take this article seriously.
@andy:
I coulnd’t agree more!
Nope, it isn’t a wrapper around Safari. Do you guys know ANYTHING about technology? The only commonality between Chrome and Safari is that they’re both based on the open Webkit project, which is used in rendering and displaying pages. Safari does NOT use Chrome’s V8 Javascript engine, which is Chrome’s bread and butter. It’s what makes Chrome outperform all other browsers in performance tests. I don’t know how anyone could say that Chrome is illegitimate (Andy). It is very much its own product, and you can see the daily work done on it here: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/list. Apple employees are not working on this, just Google employees – day in and day out.
Love it – thought provoking and gets you thinking – what really is behind it all 🙂
@Graeme One more thing…advertising is only there to sell a product, it doesn’t make it a good product no matter how fancy the agencies wrap it up.
http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/2010/01/27/chrome-wins-browser-speed-test