newly ancient

Yesterday, Google announced that, with the Google Toolbar, all your web browsing habits will be tracked and stored on Google servers. Like any service, this has its pros and cons. For me, someone who loves records, this will be invaluable because I can now search through every website I have ever browsed to find that quote I remember from some post a couple of months ago. However, with Google tracking all this data, the question of privacy must be raised. Will Google turn over records without the blink of an eye if the government issues them with a subpoena. This is even more worrisome for users in China where censorship laws allow the government to request any information they want from any company doing business in that country. Despite these concerns, Google Web History is a great product for other reasons too - you can turn it off and no one besides you can access it. Like all Google products, you can chose to disable web history by simply unchecking a single box in your preferences. After all, no one makes you use a service. Additionally, since the service is linked to your Google Account and stored on Google servers - not your local computer, the boss can’t sneak in and check out how you’ve been wasting your time. Google History is like a detective you keep on a commission - he won’t work for anyone else.