Google Versus Microsoft
August 5th, 2009 by ComputerBob
For many years, they were sort of friendly rivals and sort of colleagues.
One mainly provided users with the ability to quickly search the web for any information they wanted.
The other mainly provided an operating system and productivity applications.
But times have changed. Microsoft recently partnered with Yahoo to provide MS search engine services that hope to compete with Google’s.
And, of course, Google has its online applications suite, designed to compete with Microsoft Office.
Now, Google has announced a new ad campaign that will push the Google-apps story to commuters in major U.S. cities.
Personally, I’m not really affected by either company’s maneuvering. For my operating system, I’ve been using Linux full-time instead of Windows for the past 3 years. For my office suite, I use OpenOffice.org, the free and open source alternative to Microsoft Office, and for my main search engine, I use the SSL version of the free browser search-bar plug-in for Scroogle, the free, secure search service that anonymizes my searches before submitting them to Google.
And, as regular readers of this Journal already know, I don’t use any free online software applications like Google Apps. Yes, I know that they’re extremely portable and convenient, so I can understand why a lot of people use them, but I see plenty of reasons not to trust online service providers to safeguard my private or confidential data. So, as you can imagine, I’m horrified to see government agencies, insurance companies, and even medical providers increasingly trusting legally unaccountable online service providers with such data.
As always, Slashdot’s readers have a lot to say about the costs versus benefits of data confidentiality and convenience.
I suspect that, in the Google versus Microsoft war, both both sides will be winners.
And the losers will be those who choose to trade confidentiality for convenience.
UPDATE, November 8, 2009: Many thanks to Jack Halem, who wrote to me today to tell me about ixquick — a search engine that is reportedly even more secure than Scroogle because it’s the only search engine that doesn’t even record your IP address. After doing some research on the subject, I installed the SSL version of the free ixquick browser search-bar plug-into my browser, so that I can start using both ixquick and Scroogle as my main search engines. The reason I want to use both is because although ixquick provides a slight advantage in security, Scroogle’s use of Google’s search engine yields better search results.
Permalink:
http://www.computerbob.com/wp/google-versus-microsoft.php
Tags:
Consumer Info, Cybercrime, Dubious, Ethics, Google, Internet, Law, Microsoft, Rights, Security, Tech Support
August 5th, 2009 at 7:58 pm
Thanks for the tip on Scroogle…I’d never heard of it before…Your tips have been very helpful to me.
August 6th, 2009 at 12:43 am
You’re very welcome! And thanks for your kind words!
August 6th, 2009 at 10:25 pm
“And the losers will be those who choose to trade confidentiality for convenience.”
I couldn’t have put it any better way
Thanks