February 4th, 2009

Posted by Larry Dignan

Just in case you have ever wanted to know your friends’ precise movements–every location, every right turn, every trip to Starbucks–Google has launched Latitude, a new feature for Google Maps that runs on your PC and mobile device. Latitude is more evidence that social networking tools will increasingly be layered on top of existing apps.

The early reviews are good (Techmeme). Google Maps gets social. And more importantly, Google has done the social networking thing on its own terms and from a position of strength (Maps, see Google Mobile blog).

Link Google Maps Latitude up with Twitter and Facebook in some mashup and I’ll be able to tell when my friends hit a public bathroom in Grand Central. Great isn’t it?

I have to wonder. I sat through an information security conference at Wharton last Friday and was struck by the privacy concerns around social networking. Big point: If you’re hometown, birth date and name are all on Facebook for the world to see an intuitive hacker could get guess the first five numbers on your social security number buying generic cialis rather easily. What happens when that data is scraped in some algorithm?

Right now Latitude–and other features of its ilk–are nice toys. Increasingly I wonder about potential privacy issues. 

Needless to say Google has addressed those issues:

Latitude is a new feature for Google Maps on your mobile device. It’s also an iGoogle gadget on your computer. Once you’ve opted in to Latitude, you can see the approximate location of your friends and loved ones who have decided to share their location with you. So now you can do things like see if your spouse is stuck in traffic on the way home from work, notice that a buddy is in town for the weekend, or take comfort in knowing that a loved one’s flight landed safely, despite bad weather.

And with Latitude, not only can you see your friends’ locations on a map, but you can also be in touch directly via SMS, Google Talk, Gmail, or by updating your status message; you can even upload a new profile photo on the fly. It’s a fun way to feel close to the people you care about.

Fun aside; we recognize the sensitivity of location data, so we’ve built fine-grained privacy controls right into the application. Everything about Latitude is opt-in. You not only control exactly who gets to see your location, but you also decide the location that they see. For instance, let’s say you are in Rome. Instead of having your approximate location detected and shared automatically, you can manually set your location for elsewhere — perhaps a visit to Niagara Falls. Since you may not want to share the same information with everyone, Latitude lets you change the settings on a friend-by-friend basis. So for each person, you can choose to share your best available location or your city-level location, or you can hide. Everything is under your control and, of course, you can sign out of Latitude at any time.

Those settings are critical. After all I’d rather not let the world know I’m in Rome and my house is unattended for two weeks. That’s just me. The folks that worry about this stuff may tinker with Latitude, but shy away (it’s going to be a great teenager tracking device in the future). The rest of the folks that Twitter every movement (even bowel once in a while) will find Latitude impressive.

Have you heard the good news?! Well, Google Search has just become a bit more like Wikipedia. The new feature is called SearchWiki and as long as you’re logged in to your Google account, you can access it. It's so easy to work with too. For example, you can tell if it’s on or not by simply looking at your search results:

And here’s what those little symbols mean:

This is the Promote button. You can click on it when you like the search result it’s next to and you would like it to appear at the top of your search results in the future.

This is the Remove button. When you don’t want a search result to appear again, click this and it won’t bother you anymore!

This is the Comment button. You can leave comments about a certain search result and other users will be able to see it as well. It will use your Google account nickname, so if that's identifying at all, you may not want to use this feature.

You could say I’m a bit of a Web search purist! I mean, I don’t even like the ads on the right hand side of the Google search pages. Unfortunately, for people like me, SearchWiki is included by default. But if you don't want it, there are two ways you can get around it.

1.) Add the tag "&hl=all" to the end of every Google search URL you submit. That can be a little repetitive, but it's one of your options.

2.) Install the Greasemonkey script here. If you're not quite sure, Greasemonkey is an add on for Firefox that allows you medicament cialis to change how Web pages are displayed for you. Either way you go, happy Googling!

Q:
I get a little nervous sometimes about how the search engines I use can track a lot of what I do when I'm on my computer. Is there any way I can keep this information private? I'm not saying that I search for anything out of the ordinary, but it's nice to know I can have a little privacy when I want it.

A:
I agree with you on this one. I don't think we realize how much a search engine can pick up just from us using them. As a matter of fact, I'm really glad you asked this question. I've been trying to think of a way to fit this topic into the newsletter for awhile and now, I have the perfect opportunity. Plus, I'm sure the person who asked this question isn't the only one who has been wondering about it. So, let's clear some things up, shall we?!

First of all, let's go over a little background. Every time you use a search engine (Google, Yahoo!, etc.), that site is then able to collect and store the records of all your searches. They can track the terms you search for, the Web sites you visit after you find what you're looking for, the times at which you search and they can even pick up your IP address. From all of that, the search engine site is then able to figure out who you are, what you do while you're online and even what some of your likes and dislikes are. That's pretty crazy (and a little scary), isn't it?

So, since I care about all of you so much, I'm going to fill you in on a couple secrets as to how you can keep some of this information private from those nosy search engines. I have six tips for you today and if you follow them all, you'll be way ahead in keeping your search history private from any intruders, etc. Okay, here we go!

1.) Do not log into the search engine or any of their extra tools. If you go to your favorite search engine and log in right away, it makes it very easy for it to create a profile about you. Once you log in, they know your identity right away and after that, there's no turning back in what they can figure out next.

Now, you may think that you don't log into your search engine, but you actually may without even knowing it. For example, if you use Google as your main search engine (which a lot of us do), you are probably signed up for some of Google's other tools, such as Gmail, Google Talk, Google Groups, etc. If you're logged into any of those extra programs while you're performing a search, Google will be able to track down all of your information. So, just be sure that you log out of any other programs before you start searching. It may be hard to remember at first, but for your own safety, make sure you do it. Write yourself a note if you need to, because it's really easy to forget to log out of some of the programs you probably use on a very regular basis. You'll get the hang of it though! Again, make sure you do this for any search engine that you use that may have extra programs included.

2.) This next one has to do completely with keeping yourself safe from Google. As I said above, many of us use Google as our primary search engine, but in all actuality, Google can be one of the most risky to deal with. Google does things a little differently. It uses cookies to track your history from your search sessions. You may think that if you just delete your cookies, you'll be all set, but that's not really the best way to handle it. Cookies can be very helpful sometimes and if you deleted them, your Web surfing experience wouldn't always be as easy. So, the best thing to do is block only Google's cookies. Here's how.

In Internet Explorer, go to Tools, Internet Options and click on the Privacy tab. Next, click on the Sites button and in the "Address of Web site" box, type in Google's address (www.google.com). When you're finished, click on the Block button. In Firefox, go to Tools, Options and click on the Privacy tab as well. Choose Exceptions and type in Google's Web address. Click Block when you're done. If you do this, Google will no longer be able to place cookies on your hard disk, which will keep them from gathering up all of your information.

3.) Change your IP address on a regular basis. Search engines actually get the most information about you from your IP address, so it's best to change it every once in awhile. This will keep the search engines from learning so much about you so easily. If you use a cable or DSL modem, the easiest way to get a new IP address is to turn your modem off and leave it off for a few minutes. Then, turn it back on. This method will clear out your old IP address and you'll automatically be assigned a new one. If you use another type of how to get cialis Internet connection (dial-up, etc.), you may want to contact your ISP (Internet Service Provider) and ask them about getting a new address. Either way, it's an easy way to keep your information safe.

4.) Don't ever include any personal information in your searches. You may have searched for your own name before, which can be kind of fun, but it's really not all that safe. Every time you put any of your personal data into the search (your name, address, social security number, etc.), you're putting yourself in danger. Doing that makes it very easy for search engines to collect your information and then keep it forever. It could also sometimes lead to identity theft, depending on what you search for. Your information could land in the wrong hands and it could be very bad news.

5.) Always try to perform extra sensitive searches on a public computer. If you ever absolutely need to search for your personal information or any other extremely private data, don't do it on your home or office computer. That may not make much sense, but if you use your personal computer, it's more likely that you'll be logged into another program that could compromise your information. If you go to a computer that you've never used before, you won't have the tendency to log in and your information will be safer. Also, when you do this, make sure you don't log in on the computer you're using. If you accidentally do that, your information will be at risk all over again.

6.) The last one for today is to try and avoid using the search engine that your ISP provides. Your ISP already knows your IP address (and they'll know any new one that you get), so that means they can obtain your information even easier. Then, once you use their search engine, they will be able to collect even more information about you and it will just be bad. Most ISPs do have their own search engine (for example, search.comcast.net), so just steer clear of those. It's nice to think that we can trust our ISPs (and I mean, most the time, we can), but you really have to worry about protecting yourself first.

There you have it. Six tips you can follow to keep all of your search information as private as possible. Now, I know that some of you may not think it's necessary to do all this, but I wanted to give you options just in case you thought it was worth while. It doesn't hurt to try, right?!

Did you know that Google is not just a search engine company? Everyone knows about www.google.com and all of the programs and features it offers to help the everyday computer user, but many people don't know about the other part of Google called www.google.org.

erectile dysfunction cialis

Google.org is a part of the company that uses its technology to help the world in many ways. The newest part of the Web site is called Google Flu Trends. It's a feature that looks at search trends dealing with the flu. It monitors to see what parts of the country are searching for articles related to the flu. That way, they can predict which parts of the country are being affected by a flu breakout.

Google Flu Trends then puts all of the data together into a map of the United States. The map shows where they believe flu breakouts are happening. If you're concerned about a spell of the flu hitting your area, you can check the Google Flu Trends Web site to see if others are reporting flu related symptoms in your area.

To look at the Google Flu Trends map, you can visit this Web site.

There are other worthy causes that google.org takes on as well and you can read all about them on the google.org Web site. Until next time, stay safe out there, my friends!

December 4th, 2008

Posted by Andrew Nusca

Google is by far the largest user of Internet bandwidth, its share of bandwidth usage is rising rapidly, and its bandwidth use is orders of magnitude greater than its payment for its cost, according to a new study by NETCompetition.org, a site committed to Net Neutrality “pro-competition Internet forum funded by broadband companies.”

According to the study, Google used 16.5 percent of all U.S. consumer Internet traffic in 2008, and that share is estimated to grow to 25 percent in 2009 and 37 percent in 2010. Why? According to the study, because Google’s search bots regularly copy every page on the Internet, some as frequently as every few seconds, and Google’s YouTube streams almost half of all video streamed on the Internet.

Furthermore, the study estimates Google’s payment to fund just the U.S. consumer broadband Internet segment to be approximately $344 million in 2008 or 0.8 percent of U.S. consumers’ flat-rate monthly Internet access costs of $44.0 billion. Thus Google’s 16.5 percent share of all 2008 U.S. consumer bandwidth usage, is roughly 21 times greater than Google’s 0.8 percent share of U.S. consumer bandwidth costs — or  what the study calls a roughly “$6.9 billion subsidy of Google” by U.S. consumers.

Do you buy this argument? I’m not sure I understand how this is possible, but perhaps you readers versed in this kind of thing can explain it in the comments.

According to the study, researchers used Cisco traffic usage data combined with market share data from Hitwise and Comscore to estimate Google’s share. Google’s bandwith costs are (of course) estimated based on publicly-disclosed operating cost data. (The precise methodology can be found on page 4 of the study.)

The 27-page study can be found here as a PDF. The press release, after the jump:

For Immediate Release December 4, 2008

Contact: Scott Cleland 703-217-2407

First-Ever Study of U.S. Consumer Internet Usage and Cost Finds
Google Uses 21 Times More Bandwidth than it Pays For

Google uses 16.5% of U.S. consumer Internet capacity today,
rising to an estimated 37% in 2010

MCLEAN, Va. – Today Precursor LLC released a first-ever research study of U.S. consumer Internet bandwidth usage and costs with the objective of estimating how much bandwidth Google uses and pays for. The data confirm the study’s core hypotheses, that: Google is by far the largest user of Internet bandwidth, Google’s share of bandwidth usage is rising rapidly, and that Google’s bandwidth use is orders of magnitude greater than its payment for its cost.

The study estimated Google used 16.5% of all U.S. consumer Internet traffic in 2008, and that share is estimated to grow to 25% in 2009 and 37% in 2010. What drives this conspicuous bandwidth consumption is Google’s search bots regularly copy every page on the Internet, some as frequently as every few seconds, and Google’s YouTube streams almost half of all video streamed on the Internet.

The study estimated Google’s payment to fund just the U.S. consumer broadband Internet segment to be approximately $344 million in 2008 or 0.8% of U.S. consumer’s flat-rate monthly Internet access costs of $44.0 billion. Thus Google’s 16.5% share of all 2008 U.S. consumer bandwidth usage, is ~21 times greater than Google’s 0.8% share of U.S. consumer bandwidth costs ? or an implicit ~$6.9 billion subsidy of Google by U.S. consumers.

This research study of Google’s usage vs. cost is relevant to the current broadband policy debate, because Google is the driving force behind InternetForEveryone.org which is pushing “to adopt a national plan to bring open, high-speed Internet connections into every home, at a price all of us can afford.” Internet connections could be more affordable for everyone, if Google paid its fair share of the Internet’s cost.

*  ”It is ironic that Google, the largest user of Internet capacity, pays the least relatively to fund the Internet’s cost; it is even more ironic that the company poised to profit more than any other from more broadband deployment, expects the American taxpayer to pick up its skyrocketing bandwidth tab,” said Scott Cleland, President Precursor LLC, and author of the study.

“The core conclusion of the study is that any sustainable national broadband policy must ensure that the heaviest Internet users pay their fair share of Internet infrastructure costs. It is neither economically rational nor equitable for the biggest users of, and beneficiaries from, shared resources to not share fairly in the recovery of costs,” Mr. Cleland added.

Since Google often compares the Internet to the public highway system, the study also examined how the U.S. highway system apportions costs among business users and consumers. Any analysis of public highway funding will show that businesses/trucks, which put the most cost burden on the highways, pay substantially more than consumers/cars ? the exact opposite of Google’s recommended broadband model, where consumers shoulder most all of Google’s costs for using and profiting off the Internet — more than any other entity.

*  The study highlights the inconsistency in Google’s position supporting government ownership/regulation of the Internet like the U.S. highway system but not adopt the economic model and fairness of the highway system — where the heaviest users that cause the most costs — shoulder their fair share of the costs.

The study’s methodology is straight-forward, transparent, well documented and replicable so Google or others can provide improvements or alternative estimates — and so other countries can estimate if Google uses more of their country’s Internet capacity than it pays for.

*  The study’s author, Precursor President Scott Cleland, said: “While I expect the study to generate a healthy debate over the methodology, assumptions and estimates, any rigorous analysis of the data will lead to the same incontrovertible conclusion of this study — that Google’s U.S. consumer Internet bandwidth usage share vastly exceeds its payment share of the cost.”

*  The study was conducted over the last several months by Scott Cleland, President of Precursor LLC, a leading techcom research and consulting firm. +  Cleland was formerly an Institutional Investor Magazine top independent telecom analyst in 2004 and 2005.
+  Cleland also has a high-profile track record in spotting big anomalies in Internet traffic. In late 2000, Cleland was the first analyst to expose that Internet traffic was in reality growing 90% slower than what the market assumed, heralding the bust of the telecom bubble that wiped out over $1 trillion in market capitalization in 15 data-dependent companies.
+  Precursor now provides research for companies and Cleland is Chairman of NetCompetition.org a pro-competition Internet forum funded by broadband companies.

cialis review color=”#004d99″>Read the full study here.