Google looks totally different on my pc suddenly.

fseal · 01 Mar 2012

Today specifically, google has changed everything.

ALL your settings for all google services in existence are now all tied to a single user account. You don;t need to be logged in to use most of the services (Search, maps, etc), but their behaviour won;t be the same and to get full features you have to now be logged in...

It's quite thing they've done. Europe is not too happy about it at all, nor are quite a few higher ups in the U.S. It's quite a leap into the future world where every single thing you do every second of the day is recorded and made public for everyone else to see (assuming they have money to pay google to see it).

They are touting things like if you search for "lemon scented candles" on goggle that you may now be emailed "Fruit scented candles" spam (and to your G+ account etc) because they are all now completely tied together... Horray!

torre · 01 Mar 2012

fseal said:

They are touting things like if you search for "lemon scented candles" on goggle that you may now be emailed "Fruit scented candles" spam (and to your G+ account etc) because they are all now completely tied together... Horray!

Question please. If a user does not have a GMail account, but uses Google search and YouTube, is that user traced by Google ? Assume Chrome Browser is traced regardless of GMail Acct ?

tgfyhre · 02 Mar 2012

Good question. I'd imagine they don't trace you like that unless you're signed in, but I couldn't say for sure. It's just a guess. I'd like to hear what others think on this. I really wish I knew why Google won't work right for me now on Firefox, yet works fine on Chrome. I don't even sign in, yet it works fine in Chrome.

fseal · 02 Mar 2012

Well I wouldn't say they can't, weather they do or not I doubt anyone but them knows. They still use tracking cookies like mad men even if you aren't logged in and a HUGE area of research is ways of connecting peoples various accounts on different companies and servers to a single identity. (Well beyond research really, there are some commercial tracking companies already doing this for pay)

However, the most BLATENT examples of cross utility tracking and targeting will probably not happen if you do not log into any of google services at all...

IMAyNeed · 04 Mar 2012

They do track you even if you are not signed in. If you are using a google service -even without signing in- (youtube, maps, search) and logging into any site with a username and buying something online on another site -even without signing in- in the same browser; next time when you log in to the same site even from a different computer in another country, the ads section of the site you logged in would be customized to show similar items to the item you bought. Also, all tracking information are kept indefinitely.

Don't Track

Don't Bubble

fseal · 05 Mar 2012

A good rule of thumb at this point is, as much tracking and private info selling that you might think they may be doing, there's a good chance it's twice as bad as you are thinking :)

IMAyNeed · 05 Mar 2012

Everlong · 05 Mar 2012

fseal said:

.

They are touting things like if you search for "lemon scented candles" on goggle that you may now be emailed "Fruit scented candles" spam (and to your G+ account etc) because they are all now completely tied together... Horray!

Hence I keep the ad blockers for Google sites in place on Chrome :)

boohbah · 05 Mar 2012

if you want to search for something specific in google then add an exclamation mark at the beginning and end of the words, ie " fringe discussion fox"

here is the result

Google looks totally different on my pc suddenly.-2012-03-05_1944.png

bej · 05 Mar 2012

fseal said:

Today specifically, google has changed everything.

ALL your settings for all google services in existence are now all tied to a single user account. You don;t need to be logged in to use most of the services (Search, maps, etc), but their behaviour won;t be the same and to get full features you have to now be logged in...

It's quite thing they've done. Europe is not too happy about it at all, nor are quite a few higher ups in the U.S. It's quite a leap into the future world where every single thing you do every second of the day is recorded and made public for everyone else to see (assuming they have money to pay google to see it).

They are touting things like if you search for "lemon scented candles" on goggle that you may now be emailed "Fruit scented candles" spam (and to your G+ account etc) because they are all now completely tied together... Horray!

And where, pray tell, did they get your e-mail address ???