So Google launched Google Health today, and basically it's about drugs, lots and lots of drugs. Google is after the 20 billion dollar drug industry's advertisement money. Basically Google wants to know what ailments you have or might think you have, and then wants to sell ad companies ad space to target you. Just like good old television you let Google tell you about problems like Restless leg syndrome, the cure for which causes gambling problems and sexual urges.

Remember facebook's beacon? You thought it was gone, but it's back and this time it's got a new name. It's called Google Friend Connect. Not only does it allow Google to keep an eye on the users, but Google also keeps the content that they contribute, as well as the user base.

This is basically Google's version of the beacon put out by facebook a while ago. It collects which sites you visit, keeps track of your friends, and what you do while you're on that site and it provides that information to Google so that they can advertise better -- just like facebook wanted to do. In return for you providing Google with this service, Google will let friends visiting your site talk with each other or comment on your site. If there was an outcry about the beacon, there should be a similar one for this product. The only difference being that they're not announcing this information to your friends -- yet (remember the news reader?)! In order to drive any traffic to your site, they have to announce the information to your friends at which point this product is just like the beacon.

Also as for the value, I can't see how this adds value to your site, as the users who are already going to visit your site can talk about it with each other. I don't see how new users are going to come to your site because of this product. Perhaps I don't understand the product well enough yet, but it doesn't seem like its adding all that much value to any given site than comments already provide -- and you control your comments and can export them anywhere. With this product it's 100% lockin, you can't do anything with the content that your users contributed to the site. It seems like a bad idea for pretty much everyone as far as I can see.

If you don't have comments on your site, may I suggest getting an Open Source CMS or a blogging tool instead. Much more value, much more control, and no privacy concerns.

As shameless plug, I am writing an Open Source social network called Social OS (Open Source). It's not ready yet, but be on the lookout for it at etopian.com. Social OS takes the majority of concerns with today's social networks and addresses them in a nice open source package built on top of a leading content management system.

This document is currently being worked on and is very much incomplete. Please contact me if you're interested in contributing to it.

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