Suddenly, I've Lost My Appetite For Google
CONTRARIAN THAT I AM, perhaps I am among the minority of Americans who don't want their cell phones pointing out the nearest drive-through burger joint. But beware, world, for that is what the technology "experts" are planning to serve you soon. At the World Economic Forum in Switzerland on Friday, experts promoted the mobile Internet saying it would let advertisers tailor messages based on a user's location.
"After all, they know where you are,'' Google CEO Eric Schmidt was quoted as saying in an AP article. "You're driving along and it says, 'Eric, you had pizza yesterday and there's a hamburger stand on the right.' In theory, location-based advertising will be very good for business and useful to the end user."
To this I say, "harrumph." And then let me direct unwitting consumers to the book "Feed," M.T. Anderson's terrifying ideation of a near future when people have chips implanted in their brains to deliver a constant "feed" of advertising. If you haven't read it, I suggest you run to your nearest bookstore, grab a copy and immediately devour it. (Or, for those of you who are able defer gratification for the 40 percent discount, any online bookstore will do.) Once you make it past the disorienting first chapter, you'll quickly find yourself wide-eyed in terror at the implications of all this "technology" we so eagerly lap up.
Feeding ads inside the brain is not as farfetched as you might think. Last December, National Public Radio's show, "On the Media" reported about a billboard in New York which was "emitting highly focused sound that resonates within the skulls of passersby." OTM summarized it as "a novel way of advertising, a potentially terrifying intrusion and, according to technology writer Clive Thompson, the leading edge of a new civil rights battleground - the right to privacy in your own mind." Thompson introduces us to the Center for Cognitive Liberties, which is at the forefront of this looming sci-fi privacy battle. Check out the interview here, but to skip advertisement, fast forward 40 seconds.
Google, which christened its foray into big bigness with the motto, "Don't be Evil," might be losing its way. For all the amazing services offered by Google, including Google Earth, Google Maps, Google Books, and of course its invaluable search engine, the truth is Google closed Friday at $566.40 because of its muscle in internet advertising. And greed might be a part of that bottom line: in my own "bite the hand that feeds" way, I'll reveal here that I have paid as much as $10 for one Google click but have received about two cents back for each ad placed on this page. Won't be long now before Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will be dethroning Bill Gates from the top of the world's richest list.
In a strange coincidence, another story that popped on the web Friday was of study in which behavioral scientists concluded that lonely people are more likely to anthropomorphize their pets
and possessions. Now the same scientists plan to study further whether promoting human feelings toward objects should be used as a treatment to cure loneliness. Sorry, guys, I think the
techies have beaten you to the punch. The overall message being delivered? Our possessions are our best friends. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go talk to my cats.
Posted January 26, 2008
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