Google baits hackers

Google comes bottom of privacy survey

Oh %$^#!
Enough said. Perhaps its not that good that we all start running our lives from iGoogle. We all get passwords reset to that inbox, financial statements delivered and a stack of other confidential and potentially damaging information. If the right (err...wrong) people were to get access, ID theft would be simple. To make matters worse, one of Google's best features -- the fact that you never have to delete your mail -- means that a life time of sensitive and potentially financially crippling information might now be made available to scammers.

It seems its peers (Facebook, AOL, Yahoo) didn't do much better, but time will tell who gets hit worst.

Let's hope they sort this one out fast.

iGoogle mashup runs my digital life

Google now offers a mashup of sorts, that brings together a range of info, from various different sources. It updates this info from range of other apps and the end product of all these feeds is now my homepage. When ever I open my explorer, I now get an update on news/blog feeds that I’ve selected, a quick view of my Gmail account, an update of my FaceBook profile/activity, calendar, to do list and the weather in a few choice destinations. All very cool. All free. All very easy to create (took 5 mins). Very Web 2.0.

I now run my personal life out of Google. I recently changed PCs and the benefit of having all my info saved and accessible on the web (docs, email, contacts) as opposed to my C drive, was a major admin saver.

With Google’s platform rapidly becoming the key tool in managing my digital life, I just hope they don’t decide to start charging me for all these services (or have their security compromised)! If they added a few cool services (free maps for SA that link to GPS on my mobile, Google TV, Google whatever), I’d seriously consider paying them a few bob a month.

At the rate at which Google is allowing people to create/store/manage/access/share data, I wonder if they’ll be able to afford to keep up with the demand?

Thanks Google, very cool addition.