Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Thursday, July 22, 2010

A Goof for Google is a Goof for Microsoft

Windows Secrets has an article here concerning Microsoft’s effort to share your personal information with Windows Live. Google Buzz backfired with similar methodology, a lack of initial opt in. Do you think Microsoft will be luckier?

Data mining has become spectacularly important nowadays. So many companies tempt us with goodies just so we will ‘share’ (though we may not always realize it) certain personal information. I am reminded of the cartoon by James Thurber in which a doctor says to a bedridden person, “I don’t think of you as my patient, I think of you as my meat”. My merest interest  is a commodity for our friends at Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Twitter, and all the others.

Okay, I get that part. And I am willing to accept a certain amount of discomfort for what these companies offer me. I just don’t understand how tone deaf these companies can be. Microsoft mimics Google almost exactly by opening our private relationships to the public. Maybe they’re in collusion, just wearing us down.

Just a side observation but neither Google  or Microsoft has yet to show any marked aptitude towards social anything. I do not predict this latest effort of Microsoft will change my thinking.

No comments: