don’t be evil – Moe Lane

(Via Hot Air Headlines) To summarize this Politico article: Google’s testing out a new ad program that harvests email addresses. Fine*. This appeals to political campaigns. Also fine. A NRSC staffer saw something that looks like said ad program – one apparently bought by the Obama campaign – on Real Clear Politics last month, and emails Google’s ad people to get a pricing on a similar service. Still fine. But Google informed the NRSC staffer that:

“This is a pre-alpha product that is being released to a select few clients,” [a Google saleswoman] wrote in an email, referring to the first stage of a product’s roll-out. “I’d be happy to get you into the beta if you’re interested.”

Not fine. Continue reading #rsrh Google covering up sweetheart Obama deal?

THEY’VE DECIDED THAT THEIR NEW LINE OF WEB-OPTIMIZED NETBOOKS WILL NOT HAVE A CAPS LOCK KEY, BECAUSE – I QUOTE – “WE EXPECT THIS WILL IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF COMMENTS ACROSS THE WEB.”

It won’t, of course – as Gizmodo notes, this can be evaded via the trivial exercise of holding down the shift key, assuming that some aggrieved caps locker doesn’t create a mod that addresses the problem – and as Gizmodo also notes, this kind of restriction doesn’t actually fix the underlying problem. I will add that Google’s willingness to still try to take my choices away from me pretty much confirms that it’ll be a c0ld day in Hell before I buy one of their netbooks and/or use the Chrome browser. Because if they have a taste for restricting my behavior for the perceived sins of others on this unbelievably minor issue, then what’s keeping from trying to do it for more important things?

THAT’S RIGHT. NOTHING.

Moe Lane

Update: Backtracking already?

Continue reading #RSRH GOOGLE JUMPS THE CAPS LOCK SHARK.