I used to think it was pretty cool how I would type something in the search box and it would auto complete it for me. I'd welcome the extra .5 seconds it allowed me by not having to finish typing the last three letters in a word. But now, Google, back off and give me my space.
I asked two people what they thought about Google. One said, "it solves all my problems," the other, "it rocks." When I asked them to please be a little more descriptive, they didn't have anything else to say. I realized that other people thought like me too. When I told them about privacy issues and made them really look at those handy features Google has, they stopped, looked, and said, "wow, creepy."
My roommate said it auto completes her home address when she searches for directions, and it seems to know what she's thinking before she thinks it.
A few hours after my conversation ended, I get an instant message:
"u know what else i think its weird about google?when u open the new tab and it shows the websites u go to the most. so like facebook is my second most visited site and sometimes it shows pictures ive looked at. soooo werid. it's like a snapshot of it. I don't like it."
Apparently, what I said carried weight and shone a light on an otherwise undiscussed topic. So now I wonder, does it really need to remember all these things? Are we really that lazy that we welcome the auto-complete feature, and instead of typing "Dentist, Litchfield CT," we feel the need to just type "Dentist" and expect it to know? It makes me wonder what the word privacy even means. What is really ours alone to keep secret?
Slow down Google, step back and reassess.
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