Study this chart:

It comes from google-watch.com. Turns out there is a brewing controversy over the practices and technologies used by Google. Is it all conspiracy theory hyperbole, or is there a kernel of truth worth worrying about?

“At another level, it’s a struggle over who will have the predominant influence over the massive amounts of user data that Google collects. In the past, discussions about privacy issues and the web have been about consumer protection. That continues to be of interest, but since 9/11 there is a new threat to privacy — the federal government. Google has not shown any inclination to declare for the rights of its users across the globe, as opposed to the rights of the spies in Washington who would love to have access to Google’s user data. “

If that worries you, you have the option of searching google through Google-Watche’s own privacy-protecting, ad-free Google proxy:

http://www.google-watch.org/cgi-bin/proxy.htm

It doesn’t have google’s simple to type URL. But, if you read further in google-watch.com, you may find yourself compelled to use it anyway.

Thanks to Chiron for alerting me to this. I can say from my own small experience as a non-rich internet author with a non-profit website, that it was a very difficult to get ranked on the search engines unless you’ve got cash to spend. That doesn’t only apply to Google, but it applies to google as well. And if your information isn’t showing up on the search engines, it might as well not exist.