Expose yourself to Google

As a computer scientist who intents to use some Google features from time to time, one seems to be always confronted with a question of confidence. While I am - for my part - quite starry-eyed about that topic, others often remind me to make thoughts about what malicious things Google (and of course other online services as well) might be able to do with the infomation I feed them with.

I came up with making major thoughts about this topic because a friend called me a Google-sympathizer when introducing him Google Android. At that moment I felt very uncertain (and I still feel so) about if he is right or not; and if so, if this was ok. The thing is that I am really curious to see how reorganizing information can improve our daily life. And Google is the leading company for this matter. And I am quite sure they know that and use this philosophy to make themselves even more desirable.

Although I'm using Google Mail and Google Maps - to name my most used features - I think Google Health goes a little beyond of what I want to tell them. On the other hand: Who knows what Google will be able to tell me in future if I'd provide them with my medical data. Maybe they invent algorythms that can care about my health in a smarter way than any doctor ever could (of course only regarding the non-physical part). It could for example calculate what medicine is best for certain symptoms. So is it worth offering my personal data in exchange for better health-care?

OK, due to the fact that Google doesn't offer some kind of this service, yet (as far as I know), I am spared to make this decision :P But what about the other services I mentioned above? It is well known that Google already analyses their customers e-Mails for advertise purposes. Usually I don't notice these ads but the ad industry always tries to advertise on us without our notice. So I might want to buy some product without noticing that someone else "made me wanting" this product and I actually don't want it.

In order to not get hooked on big companies services I started developing my own stuff. For example I have a database that keeps my friends contact information and reminds me about birthdates and such stuff. But that is of course not the final solution as I cannot rebuild all that stuff alone and with no budget.

Well, now that I posted my thoughts about all this directly into Google's blog service, they might use these informations and make something really awesome with it - or not.