Earlier today we detailed some of the announcements from Google, now it’s time for a microwave review—quick and dirty. Verdict: I’m not a happy Googler. I signed into my Gmail account and took the new Universal Navigation Bar for a spin. Worked fine, nothing special. I did notice that when I tried to search on Google.com I was presented with a cluttered page called iGoogle (Google’s personalization feature) featuring a calendar, weather report and news of the day from CNN. I don’t like this page, so I signed out of Gmail.
Afterwards, I went to the Google.com homepage expecting to see the beautifully spartan Google search page I’m accustomed to, but it wasn’t there. I was instead met with the same iGoogle page inviting me to sign into my account or create a new one. Only after clearing out my browser cookies by relaunching my browser was I able to search Google without the “i” staring me in the face begging me to personalize my Google homepage.
Then when I tried this again a few minutes later, the whole thing inexplicably switched up and I was presented with the option of Google Classic as the default (the normal version of Google search) or iGoogle (which was no longer the default). Perhaps I got caught up in a temporary glitch given that today Google is undergoing many changes. No harm, no foul.
But this whole thing reminds me of why I stopped using Yahoo.
I don’t want my user experience forced upon me. I want the ability to opt in or out of any particular service. I like a simple email client, a simple web search tool. I have my “own” calendar on my desktop, I have my “own” method for reading news. All iGoogle does is clutter my already overloaded web experience. Shoving iGoogle in my face anytime I log into or out of my Gmail account is a huge turnoff. Finally, Google has made a major mistake. It had to happen sooner or later.
One last thing… I’ve purposefully stayed away from looking at Google’s
Web History feature because I knew it would send my suspicions about
Google into overdrive, and I was right. Playing around with the new
Google features I finally got around to checking out the already launched Web History feature and I was completely taken aback. Knowing the history is there is one thing, but looking at a trending report—that you did not commission—on your own search activity is creepy.
Even more worrying is that all this data is attached to my Gmail account, so there is no doubt who I am and what my tastes are.
Thankfully, according to my trend report, my tastes appear to be rather sedate, but they are still “my” tastes, i.e. “my” business (or so we all like think). Staring at this page I came to the realization I would either have to close my Gmail account, or switch search engines, or both. For now, I’ve opted to make another search engine my primary search tool and keep using Gmail until I find something better. I understand Google has to do what it has to do in order to be competitive, but it doesn’t mean I have to go along for the ride.
