Google Desktop privacy branded 'unacceptable' | The Register Google Desktop privacy branded 'unacceptable' | The Register: "Google's Desktop represents a privacy disaster just waiting to happen, a rival has warned. David Burns, Copernic CEO, says users should know that the giant ad broker intends to mix public and private queries in the future, leveraging its key moneyspinning product: contextual advertising."  ¶ 11:31 PM 0 comments

  Gates: PC will replace TV, TV will become a giant Google | The Register Gates: PC will replace TV, TV will become a giant Google | The Register: "Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates must see Google everywhere he looks these days. He must even see Google when he closes his eyes, and enters that lucid dreaming state from which all of Microsoft's great strategies eventually emerge. What he sees at that moment, we imagine, is a Tellytubby landscape that looks a lot like the Windows XP default wallpaper - perhaps with Chairman Bill himself as the sun. But bouncing across this happy vista are the red, green and blue colored balls that have rolled out of the Google playpen."  ¶ 11:31 PM 0 comments

  Google News' chief robot speaks out | The Register Google News' chief robot speaks out | The Register: "Is Google News' chief scientist, Krishna Bharat, actually a robot? From an interview in the current issue of Wired magazine, it's increasingly difficult to conclude that Bharat could convincingly pass the Turing Test. Every time Google News is criticized for bias, Bharat is wheeled to field out an identical reply. He claims that humans can't be held responsible for what appears on his website - because machines are in charge."  ¶ 11:31 PM 0 comments

  Major flaw found in Google Desktop | The Register Major flaw found in Google Desktop | The Register: "Computer scientists have discovered a potentially serious flaw in Google's desktop search utility that could allow attackers to steal information."  ¶ 11:31 PM 0 comments

  Google exposes web surveillance cams | The Register Google exposes web surveillance cams | The Register: "Blogs and message forums buzzed this week with the discovery that a pair of simple Google searches permits access to well over 1,000 unprotected surveillance cameras around the world - apparently without their owners' knowledge."  ¶ 11:30 PM 0 comments

  An open source Google - without the ads | The Register An open source Google - without the ads | The Register: "With the hope of returning at least one corner of the web to its non-commercial roots, Google watcher Daniel Brandt, who curates the NameBase archive, has released the source code to a Google scraper."  ¶ 11:30 PM 0 comments