In another step toward complete information integration for its users, Google today announced it will merge all its user data into one handy file.
This provoked a firestorm of questions and controversy as privacy advocates tried to figure out exactly what was being merged, and users tried to figure out what it meant for them.
Since Google+ first came along I have been saying that I see it as a huge umbrella under which all Google properties will eventually be placed. In this way Google+ will continue to expand its reach, gobbling up users who might only have a Blogger account, YouTube account, Gmail or Picasa account. By using their network in this way Google+ doesn’t need to directly compete with Facebook for users, because it already has users. All it needs to do is re-direct those users to Google+ to make their numbers jump.
This merging of personal information, Google says, is only meant to improve the way users receive advertisements on its network. They can focus specifically on what users want because, well, they know what you want. If you searched for it, or accessed it in any way, Google will know and share that information with its network of properties, so no matter what Google property you are using, it will (in theory) already know what you like.
In the meantime privacy activists say this is coming close to creating an atmosphere akin to ‘Big Brother’ within the Google network, but the company is committed and shows no signs of backing down.
For now users can take some comfort in Google’s written promise that they do not plan to share any personal information it gathers on its users. Of course, we’ve all heard those promises before…
Google plans to start combining information the company collects about each user of its various websites and services into a single profile, the company announced on Tuesday.
Previously, Google said it did not create comprehensive profiles across its various properties, including its leading search engine, Android smartphone operating system and YouTube video site.
In a statement, Alma Whitten, a Google privacy director, wrote that the changes “will mean a simpler, more intuitive Google experience.” She added, “Our recently launched personal search feature is a good example of the cool things Google can do when we combine information across products.”
We all know the power of social media to mobilize great throngs of people. We saw the havoc wreaked by social media in London during the riots last summer. We also saw the way social media was used a weapon against tyranny in the Middle East where Tunisians, Egyptians, and Libyans used social networking to organize revolts against despots.
We know social media can change the world, but can it help the individual beyond making them feel like they have a lot of “online friends”?
I think it can and it does every single day.
Take the case of Amit Gupta. He is the founder of web sites Photojojo and Jelly. He was the darling of the tech world even before he was diagnosed with Leukemia in 2011. Then he really got famous.
You might have seen Amit Gupta’s smiling mug posted into your social media stream at one point or another (that’s it, up there at the top of this post). The reason was because he needed a bone marrow transplant and was having trouble finding a donor. Without a matching donor, Amit Gupta was going to die. Period. End of story.
To avoid this fate his friends launched a massive social media campaign to find him a donor. For months they told his tale and spread the message via Facebook, Twitter, Google+; anyplace they could post his picture and information about his situation and ask someone to be tested to see if they were a match.
As a result, Amit Gupta announced today that a match had been found. His life has been saved. All because of the social media campaign his friends launched, managed and maintained in support of him. In addition to his match there were an abundance of ancillary benefits, like the thousands of new bone marrow donors who stepped forward to offer themselves for anyone who they might be a match with.
In this way social media was successful not for bringing in new revenue, or bringing down an evil dictatorship, but in saving one single life.
That makes it the singularly most powerful communication tool humanity has even seen. And truly, I believe the best is still yet to come.
The campaign undoubtedly reached thousands of people and garnered hundreds of new volunteers for bone marrow donor programs.
Gupta announced on his own blog on Wednesday that after “100 drives organized by friends, family, and strangers, celebrity call-outs, a bazillion reblogs (7000+!), tweets, and Facebook posts,” he has found his match.
Sometime Thursday, he will be admitted to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute to begin treatments of chemo, receive the donor’s stem cells by IV, receive immunosuppressants and begin a long journey to recovery.
Can you imagine what the world would be like today if Rosa had gotten up. The truth is, she was simply too tired. Even she would tell you this. I know because I met her best friend’s grandson. Any other day, she might have just gotten up.
But she was asked on the wrong day.
Well, in this case – I guess it was the right day because it started a movement beyond anything one tired African American woman could have ever anticipated.
So maybe you’re tired – maybe you’re busy – maybe you think you don’t matter.
And maybe you don’t matter. Maybe you can do NOTHING.
Or maybe you do. And you can.
For me? I’m WAY too busy today – I have an important business meeting in 37 minutes that I can’t be late for – yet I’m going to be late.
And I’m getting ready to be lazy as I’d love to give a Lori Taylor style rant to get you inspired and motivated to charge the internet with your passion for protecting the little guys!
But I don’t have time to do that justice. Yet I refuse to totally SUCK and let that be an excuse to do NOTHING. (It’s like being on a diet, eating a cupcake, then throwing your hands up in the air, saying you blew it, as you drive through every fast food joint on the way home.)
So instead, I’m cutting and pasting an email I received today from Danny at Firepole Marketing. And give a HUGE shout out to copyblogger – go there right now http://copyblogger.com, if nothing else it is the COOLEST thing I’ve EVER seen. And DO. It.
Right now or right after you read this awesome message about SOPA from Danny. Then if you need some inspiration – click on my One Act Video I made below for a client – and DO SOMETHING.
Hi Lori,
Please pardon this break from our usual “marketing that works” messaging, but right now we’re about as close as the online community has come to a real emergency in quite some time.
I know that you’re busy, but I really need you to read this email, and at the very least be aware of the very serious danger that is facing us all.
Maybe you already know about SOPA. Maybe you’ve read about it on Copyblogger, or any number of the other places who are outraged by the horror that Hollywood is trying to inflict on the internet.
I don’t usually get involved in politics (particularly American politics, seeing as I’m Canadian), but SOPA is an absolute disaster in the making, and I felt that it was important enough to shut down the site for a day, and disrupt our Marketing That Works Ideas contest to help spread the word.
In case you’re wondering, by the way, SOPA “is the Stop Online Piracy Act, written with the intent of more vigorously protecting copyright around the web. The entertainment industry wants to come down harder on file sharing and the theft of copyrighted material, so it lobbied for a draconian law to add to the many anti-piracy laws that are already on the books.” (quoting Sonia Simone at Copyblogger)
SOPA basically means that anyone (read: Hollywood) can accuse anyone else (read: small businesses like yours and mine) of copyright violation, and punitive action will be taken (read: our sites will be taken down indefinitely) with no recourse, no chance for appeal, and with a “guilty until proven innocent” mentality that is completely antithetical to Western democracy.
Eugene over at ContentStrategyHub made a joke about me being like Freddy Krueger. I ran with it, wrote a blog post about the experience, and have continued to make use of the moniker. Well, Freddy Krueger is probably copyrighted, and that would be enough for Firepole Marketing to be taken down indefinitely.
(Although, to be fair, the “guilty until proven innocent with no recourse” legislation would mean that the same could be done by an irate reader, without any real justification needed.)
Lots of people have talked about why SOPA is bad news for small business, and why it’s toothless to enforce actual copyright infringement by internet pirates, but I want to mention why it’s particularly bad for American business:
1. The minute that SOPA passes (heaven forbid), there will be an exodus of businesses moving their websites off of American servers, to avoid the risk of arbitrary shutdown (that’s what I’ll do).
2. To enforce this, the United States would have to take lessons from China about controlling what their citizens do or don’t have access to. That’s a recipe for innovation to go offshore.
And that’s just the start. SOPA is bad news. Bad for small businesses, bad for Americans… it’s just BAD.
And it’s going to happen unless you take action to help stop it.
If you’re fine with censorship, arbitrary shutdowns of websites, and the government basically deputizing Hollywood into online law enforcement, then that’s fine – I respect your choice.
If you don’t want to let this happen, though, then please visit AmericanCensorship.org, and take one of the quick and easy actions described on the page (there’s stuff that you can do even if you aren’t American, like me):
Please take a moment to make your voice heard and help avoid online disaster.
Thank you.
Tomorrow we’ll return to our regular “Marketing That Works” programming.
Danny Iny
Firepole Marketing
P.S. Special thanks to Sherice Jacob who agreed to have her “Marketing That Works” contest post bumped to Saturday to accommodate the shutdown. If you care about SOPA, take a minute to check the site on Saturday and thank her.
Now tweet – share – go to copyblogger and call your senator – he practically does it for you. This is important. You Count. You Matter.
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Lori Taylor is the host of the One Click Society radio show, where she interviews industry insiders such as Steve Rubel, Jay Baer, Leo Babauta and others.
