Google for business? No thanks Big Brother

Written by Trey Heath

There’s been a lot said and written on the brilliance of Google, but I’d like to throw my own perspective in the mix.
Google may have executed one of the more brilliant schemes in the last five years, and I’m not talking about Google Wave or Google Voice or even Google Android.

What I am talking about is the collection of personal data Google collects on every Internet user in the world every day. You’d think that a company who has collected email messages, phone calls, videos and even our schedules would be viewed as the epitome of Big Brother, but not Google. They remain the cool, revolutionary company that provides free services to all.

I’m not here to argue the usefulness of certain Google products, but I would like to clarify Google’s motivation.
Google is an advertising business –a very large advertising business- not a software development firm. Their goal is to collect as much information on their users so that they can sell relevant ads.
That’s fine and dandy for personal Internet users, but when we mix products from an advertising agency, that’s when things get fishy.

Think of it from a business perspective – the products and services that you make the most profit off of are generally your best.
Google may charge a good bit for business email, but they are making very little profit off of the venture. So what are their motives? To push their information collecting advertising engine into the business world. This is just a little to scary for me.
We stick with Microsoft exchange and we host Microsoft exchange because that’s a big part of what Microsoft does. They money we pay for exchange pays for the email service and that’s what we get. But it’s what we don’t get – Big Brother- that may be the most important factor.