In the mind of a search engine user – Is Google the ultimate voyeur?
Man, I’d love to be a fly on the wall when someone sits at their computer and decides to randomly search Google. Â This post was inspired by looking at some site stats and noticing the very random searches that have led people to this site. Â Most notorious in my mind is the latest search results for “really big poop.” Â It just so happens that I happen to have a picture of a really big bear poop on this site as I was working maintenance at Farragut State Park in North Idaho and had to clean up after the bears every day last fall so hopefully I helped the searcher for really big poop.
I could ask myself why anyone would want to search for such a thing but I know for every topic that exists in the world, there’s somebody searching for it. Â The thing that gets me is the Google data mining aspect – that they keep records of every single search. Â Think about this – it’s as if they are mapping human minds – a giant social project that someday could explain the inner workings of human thought. Â What conclusions could someone draw about you if they had detailed data of everything you’ve ever searched for on Google – in addition to an analysis of everywhere you’ve ever been on the internet? Â Would it be something you’d like to know if you were trying to sell a product – you bet it would – and my guess is we haven’t even seen the tip of the iceberg yet on how Google will profit from this data. Â It will be shock and awe.
Just a humble prediction, what’s your thoughts?
