So, is this jest Shawn, because if you are serious you should let the forum know so there is no speculation (about Google paying you). It is something you did on your own, that is what I believe at this time, I say you are joking.
Why would that make any difference and how is it the forums business if Shawn was?? I believe it was a joke too but it's not my business.
Google has never paid me (other than AdSense revenue for anything) and they have never called me (actually, now that I think about it, they have... but nothing to do with making them anything).
PK Shawn is well known on the forum circuit, so to have speculation going around would not be good for DP. That is the only reason I wanted to be sure, sometimes you can not tell when Shawn is joking. I put up some threads that I thought were clear joke threads and members got mad at me thinking I was serious, so it is good to ask sometimes.
Understandable. I give too much credit to users and plain text on screen sometimes. I hope most people can tell a joke from the truth Anyway back to the subject at hand. The Google Toolbar. You mentioned Amazon not tracking URLs outside of Amazon. I believe Google should be allow since that is their product and core audience. I dont understand how a free service can get so much flake. If someone doesn't want the toolbar than they dont install it. If someone doesn't like Google than use something else (as you have stated you do anthony) Personally I'd rather go after the adware toolbars that collect and SELL the information. If Google uses the anonymous data to better their product than I see nothing wrong with that. The reason almost 95% of all search engines fail is because they fail to understand the importance of analytics. Most build up their userbase and than advertise till the cows come home. This discourages the userbase and they leave but the company made some money while they were popular.
It really gets down to this, "transmissions of page views to third parties", without permission is a serious crime and should be outlawed period. The next question is the with permission deal, this is the next thing lawmakers need to look at, the EULA's also, I bet most of them are set up to take great advantage of all who accept them.
There is no way EULA are going to be invalidated. If you install Windows, there is a EULA that says you can't reverse engineer or decompile it. That would be rather interesting... being able to legally decompile/reverse engineer Windows even though you agree to an EULA that says you cannot.
Actually, there was a line in Google SEC IPO filing that talked about one million stock option grant to someone named "Mr. Hogan" for tool development - I'm sure Anthony can track this down and find out more info for us!
Shawn, I am not talking about the M$ EULA, I am talking about the toolbar EULA's that have all kinds of terms and conditions allowing these companies that offer toolbars to do things like. 1) autoupdate the software without users permission. 2) track users every page view even on their intranets and report pages back like web page builder interface pages and all kinds of other stuff that are not even website pages. 3) enables these companies to sell data to partners or 3rd parties.
Alek, you are the same guy that say's Shawn bills his time for $6,000.00 an hour, are you his agent, 10% of what he makes ain't bad, maybe if we both made that 10% combined we would not be looking for part time or full time jobs right now. If I had a nickel for every dollar Shawn makes according to you, I would be worth millions.
It's impossible to make a certain type of software's EULA invalid, while not others. BTW, Google does not query for Intranet URLs (anything non-routable), or anything public that is not using HTTP (HTTPS for example).
I have read on some blogs that the toolbar followed some folks to very strange places on internal databases and the like, when you say query are you talking about the toolbar or the GoogleBotSpider? Remember we had the discussion about the Bot going past some robot.txt code before? There are a lot of unknown things going on and being discussed Shawn.
I'm talking about the toolbar. I've not heard of Googlebot following the toolbar user, and even if it did, how exactly do you think a HTTP spider is getting into someone's database? That's kind of funny actually. It's not difficult to see what the Toolbar does/does not query PageRank for because the traffic is not encrypted. You can look at the network traffic and see for yourself. I've never seen (or heard of) a Gooblebot not adhering to the robots.txt directives.
Yeah, I am funny sometimes Shawn, I do understand that the toolbar and Googlebot are two different things. The toolbar collects page views of the toolbar user, I never said that the spider follows the toolbar. What I did say was that the toolbar can pick up pages that you may not think about, like web page builder interface pages in a hosts website building program, I know because the Alexa bar followed me into one of mine and indexed the do it yourself "build a website" interface pages in their search results. So what I am saying is that these toolbars follow each page view, even pages that you would not expect that they would pick up. Are you saying it is not possible for the toolbar to pick up intranet pages?
I have seen these threads before and frankly fail to understand what the fuss is about. One doesn't have to have the G or A or whatever toolbar. Don't want it don't install it. You don't have to use IE you don't have to use the net.... Don't want to log in automatically - deny cookies.. and so on... Don't want A to flog you books cd's and god knows what - don't log in... None of the TB's around makes any untrue claim when you install and you don't have to accept. NOBLIFF = no business lunch is for free M PS It's so funny as we all love to come to our favorite rstaurant be greeted by the maitre d and be ushered to nice table (specifically if it's obviously fully booked) and feel at home.... Magically he anticipates our mood and presents the perfect choice of wine... PPS In the morning when I get up the (real) birds are waiting as they know I run the rasin-tool-bar.....
No fuss, just intelligence on what the toolbar does, if it is anything like the Alexa bar it is a mini spider also. Look at the following page of comments on the subject. http://www.sidhe.org/~dan/blog/mt-despamcomments.cgi?entry_id=267
That may be so as regards software categories, but it is less clear as repects the form and presentation of the agreement, which is a contract of sorts. There is a term of art in law, "contract of adhesion"; you can look it up, but in brief, a contract of adhesion is any contract that comes as a set form and is severely favorable to the party presenting the contract, which presentation is characteristically on a "take-it-or-leave-it" basis. The law frowns on such contracts, and will often find them invalid and not binding on the party who did not draft and present the contract. (I'm not sure, but I believe the term derives its name from the point that such contracts often "adhere" to some token of participation, like the "contract" on the back of your receipt for using a parking garage, which releases them from all liability for your vehicle.) Whether an End-User License Agreement would be classed a "contract of adhesion" would make an interesting dispute. The more nearly the weaker party has a reasonable right to refuse or--better--negotiate terms, the stronger the contract will be. "Shrink-wrap" licenses, which often cannot be read before the nominal triggering act of acceptance (breaking the wrap) are usually pretty weak; something you have to take a positive action to accept, such as a click-here, probably has a better chance of being valid.
I say that the toolbars that collect page views and transmit them to third parties will one day be regulated or outlawed. They will have to change their EULA's to reflect any new laws that are passed on spyware if in fact those laws are passed. At the minimum they will have to disclose much more about information collected and how it is used and sold. They will also have to get many more permissions from users down the road.