Boycott Google

Another promising Google alternative is DuckDuckGo

According to their self description they offer more privacy, less spam and ads, and less clutter – which is pretty much everything you want :)

Contrary to an earlier announcement Google will be the default search engine in the Firefox web browser of the upcoming Ubuntu release, release manager Rick Spencer says.

In his message to the Ubuntu developers’ mailing list he gives no reasons for this change of plans but says that “the underlying circumstances can change unpredictably”.

“The spiked debate, ‘Has Google got too big?’, will take place at the Royal Society of Arts in London between 6.30pm and 8pm on Thursday 18 March. It’s a free debate”

see also the spiked article We are all in Google’s crossfire

On Wednesday, February 24, an Italian court convicted three Google executives of violating the privacy of a minor. A video shown on Google’s video site showed the bullying of an autistic schoolboy at Turin secondary school in 2006. The video was posted to the site on September 8 that year and removed on November 7 after a complaint by Italian police. Prosecutors in the case said that Google was negligent in not removing the video sooner.

David Drummond, chief legal officer at Google and one of the convicted individuals, was “outraged” by the decision: “If individuals like myself and my Google colleagues who had nothing to do with the harassing incident, its filming or its uploading onto Google Video can be held criminally liable solely by virtue of our position at Google, every employee of any internet hosting service faces similar liability”.

(this is for Germans who want to object to their homes being included in Google Street View, hence written in German)

Wer Widerspruch dagegen einlegen will, dass sein Haus in Google Street View auftaucht, kann das per Mail an streetview-deutschland@google.com oder per Brief an Google Germany GmbH, Betr. Street View, ABC-Straße 19, 20354 Hamburg tun.

Das Bundesministerium für Verbraucherschutz bietet auf seiner Website passende Musterbriefe an. Das Ministerium bezieht selbst recht eindeutig Stellung gegen Google Street View:

“Dabei ist ‘Google Streetview’ für Internet-Nutzer nur auf den ersten Blick ein kostenloser Service. Denn letztlich zahlen alle Bürgerinnen und Bürger dafür: mit einem Verlust der Privatsphäre, der durch das millionenfache Abbilden von Häusern und Gärten entsteht.”