Indexing the Desktop - Privacy Issues and Advertising
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While all these features sound great, what about privacy? Gmail went through something of a fiasco shortly after its initial launch when people realized they were receiving targeted ads based on the content of email they sent and received. Google has outlined a very clear privacy policy with Google Desktop but does still leave ample wiggle room to allow future incorporation of target ads - Google's bread butter - into the application - by delivering an even higher relevance for ads to end users than that which is already provided through the Google Ad Words tool.
All in all, Google Desktop provides a much needed boost to usability for the Windows operating system by allowing users to quickly and efficiently search their own computers with the same technology used to search the web through the Google website. After using Google for about four years, I cannot imagine ever bothering to use another search engine again -- and after installing Google Desktop, I find it quite unlikely that I will ever use the Windows search tool again.
Microsoft is scared... and if they aren't, they should be. Google has taken advantage of the fact that they have become the de facto standard for finding anything imaginable on the web and applied that to the desktop.
So what is this really about? One word -- advertising. The web and email have become quagmires of useless advertising and spam. Any website that can deliver effective, targeted advertising to a broad user base is bound to succeed, no questions asked.
Google has managed to cultivate a successful advertising program known as Google Ad Words where advertisers pay per click for ranking on keywords. The cost per click is dependent solely on the competition for those keywords - it is essentially an auction and the top few will make it to the first page of search results on google.com for searches on the keywords they have paid for. Companies pay premiums for some keywords, up to five dollars per click, due simply to the huge market share available to advertisers who can reach an audience through Google.
Next: Results of Google Ads >>
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