Silicon Gulf

Google introduces stylin’ new themes for iGoogle done by famous artistic icons such as:
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I don’t know how many of you know this, but Google has always had an unofficial corporate motto: Don’t be evil. It was pronounced in 2001 by Paul Buchheit, creator of Google’s Gmail (but who has now left to found his own Internet venture). At that time, Google was still this idealistic group of young engineers and entrepreneurs who dreamed of changing the world. In other words, they were not such a major player yet.

Today, the world’s #1 search engine (among other things) is a multibillion-dollar company with well over 16,000 employees. It has become the single biggest item on everyone’s mind when using the Internet. In other words, Google is now constantly under close scrutiny by critics and regular users alike.

Google has been branded as “evil” by many industry watchers, due to some decisions it has made that have impacted a few holy-grail-level beliefs held by Internet users. Privacy: the Google Maps service is seen by some as an intrusion to privacy. In the U.S. and soon in Australia, you can see photographed views of streets from the ground; and there have been complaints of actual faces and plate numbers being visible.

Censorship: When Google entered China in 2006, it complied with censorship restrictions imposed by the Chinese government. The censorship effectively blocks search results that displayed — in the Chinese government’s perception — politically sensitive information. Google CEO Eric Schmidt came under fire for acceding to this blatant disregard for free access to public information. Schmidt was quoted as saying, “We actually did an evil scale, and decided not to serve at all was worse evil.”

If you think about it, “Don’t be evil” is a rather impossible dictum to follow. As with any publicly listed company, the priority of a business is to provide ever-increasing returns in favor of its shareholders. This could — and often does — conflict with any company’s perceived core values.

Apparently, Google is using its shareholders as an excuse for dealing with totalitarian regimes. But more and more lately, people are holding Google to its self-imposed maxim. The corporate motto has encouraged the public to hold Google to a higher standard.

Why? Because people have not forgotten why Google became so widely accepted in such a short time: that it wanted to change the world. And it has. For example, its email product, Gmail, was the reason for Yahoo’s and Hotmail’s scampering to increase their inbox space allotment. Do you remember that Yahoo! Mail only let you have 4 megabytes to store all your emails and attachments? That’s just 2 high-quality photos and your inbox is done for.

Its flagship search product, of course, revolutionized the way people found information on the Web. In no time at all, the expression “Google it!” became a household word all over the world.

People won’t let Google forget its roots. Internet users are increasingly disappointed about the direction the search giant is taking. In fact, in many instances, it has been labeled as ‘the next Microsoft’. And this is uttered unflatteringly, mind you.

Being the new big kid on the block — nay, the whole neighborhood! — is certainly tough. It can only go either of two ways in the eyes of the public: Google becomes the hero of the Internet, or it becomes the bully.

Two of my friends, Kuya Andrew and Kuya Blogie, who are both using OpenDNS and PLDT myDSL encountered an annoying problem this afternoon.  PLDT myDSL subscribers who uses OpenDNS blocks their access to search engine sites like Google, Yahoo and MSN.

The odd thing about it is the presence of the PLDT myDSL logo below the Site Blocked message of OpenDNS.

 

Did OpenDNS mistake Philippines as China?

I hope they (PLDT and OpenDNS) can check this one.

You may read their posts below:

• PLDT blocking Google
• Google.com blocked by OpenDNS

Just now I got a text message from Bob Martin, who’s wondering why he can’t access Google’s search pages. Then, he said he can’t access his Google AdSense account pages as well. What happens, according to Bob, is he gets redirected to a landing page whenever he tries to access www.google.com. Take a look at this screen capture of Bob’s browser.

He’s connected to the Internet via PLDT myDSL. Why is PLDT seemingly blocking Google? In fact, it’s not just Google but AltaVista, Yahoo! and MSN as well. And on that landing page is PLDT’s own search engine, with advertisements.

If you notice, Bob’s using OpenDNS, but when he turns it off, he says the resulting page comes out the same. I use OpenDNS too, but I’m not having this problem.

To verify this, my other friends who are on PLDT myDSL confirm this strange development. A backward development, if you ask me.

Is PLDT blocking search engines and portals so that they can offer their own online services? If that’s the case, that is very much akin to the Gestapo tactics of World War II Nazis.

But there’s more. Check out this next screenshot.

This is a journalist’s blog, Istambay sa Mindanao, which is being blocked by PLDT, because it’s categorized as a blog. Other Davao blogs being blocked so far are Councilor Pete Laviña’s, Taga-Davao, Village Idiot Savant… My friend Bob thinks his blogs will fall into this black hole as well.

Are we in China here? Or Saudi Arabia? If this is indeed the doing of PLDT, do they think such deceitful devices will stand for long in a free and democratic country? (Where there are a lot of bloggers, I might add!)

I’m on SmartBro DSL, which is also part of the PLDT ilk. Are they going to follow suit as well?

This just in: Gmail is also being blocked by PLDT. In my estimate, tens of thousands of Filipinos use Gmail. What’s next?

Google just made available a Google Talk for PC (not the one used inside the browser) called Google Talk Labs Edition. So what’s the difference… Features of the Google Talk Gadget on your desktop (emoticons, group chat, and more!) New! Desktop notifications from the following services: Gmail Calendar (with a new snooze option!) Orkut Its the Group chat feature that gave me [...]

Cn u rid dis msg? (can you read this message) Pinoys are very good at text lingo (abbreviating or shortening the words into a combination of letters to be read as a norma; word) .. in fact some professors and lawmakers have urged that texters to use complete words when texting because text lingo makes people, specially [...]

IN A RECENT article at TechCrunch.com, it was reported that the Japanese government is considering a move to crack down on file sharing (read: Torrent or Kazaa). In Japan, the most popular peer-to-peer (P2P) network for the distribution of computer files is Winny. In simple terms, “P2P” is defined as the combined connectivity and bandwidth of Internet-enabled PCs that do not depend on a server to propagate. Such a network has a number of functions, but it was only natural that Netizens have become its largest user base.

When P2P networks exploded in the late 90s after the much-ballyhooed Napster, the first to feel the brunt was the music industry. When techies began circulating songs in mp3 format through the Internet, it didn’t take long for music enthusiasts to catch on and embrace the technology. (more…)

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IN A RECENT article at TechCrunch.com, it was reported that the Japanese government is considering a move to crack down on file sharing (read: Torrent or Kazaa). In Japan, the most popular peer-to-peer (P2P) network for the distribution of computer files is Winny. In simple terms, “P2P” is defined as the combined connectivity and bandwidth of Internet-enabled PCs that do not depend on a server to propagate. Such a network has a number of functions, but it was only natural that Netizens have become its largest user base.

When P2P networks exploded in the late 90s after the much-ballyhooed Napster, the first to feel the brunt was the music industry. When techies began circulating songs in mp3 format through the Internet, it didn’t take long for music enthusiasts to catch on and embrace the technology. (more…)

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Expect a Yahoo! office in Manila by the second quarter of this year, says newly appointed general manager Jojo Anonuevo (of Mobius fame). Claiming to capture 85% of the 22 million-strong Filipino Internet population, Yahoo! is bent on dominating the online advertising market in the country, which it says will make up 5% of the total advertising spend here. Aside from that, the local Y! office will work on generating more content for Yahoo.com.ph through their content partners, which will most likely include Inquirer.net and Yehey. Yehey is rumored to start selling advertising for Y! since last year.

Smart business move on Y!’s part. If they really want a taste of the market, it’s a no-brainer to go to where the action is. Most definitely, Google has their work cut out for them. Will I be blogging about Google coming to the Philippines soon? Wait, they chose Malaysia right. Probably not in the near future.

Let’s try to hypothesize a scenario wherein Google tries to outbid Microsoft for online portal Yahoo! I think Yahoo! would take Google’s offer in a heartbeat, knowing that they are more culturally similar and both, in their own seemingly quirky ways, are pushing the limits of innovation on the web. Microsoft, on the other hand, stands to lose the only chance they have of carving a chunk out of the online advertising market that Google dominates. It will continue to make big bucks out of its software business, but all of that won’t mean anything when business, advertising, entertainment and should I say word processing are quickly shifting their gears to the Internet.
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