Remove your Google Toolbar

clasione · 08-19-2004, 03:25 AM

Remove your Google Toolbar

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I have been a fan of the Google toolbar for a long time...

But I'm the first one to except the uninstallation of my toolbar....

Upon download, your Google toolbar discusses that fact that with it's advanced features enabled, (PR bar, Direcotry Tabs) that information about the sites you visit will be sent to Google and used to modify there search technology....

I don't like anyone having information about anything I do, but for the use of the Google toolbar, it's worth it...

Google is trying to get everyone to:

1 - stop focusing on Pagerank....
2 - stop buying links based on PR
3 - stop selling THEIR pr on your site...

Google wins:
Toolbar anvanced features enabled...
Their still watching you while your watching nothing...

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I am uninstalling my toolbar because:
Serps display url's of sites that are gray
Serps display url's of sites that are white
Serps display url's of sites that are any PR

Google has won.....
They have made us THINK that PR doesn't matter by simply making it NOT MATTER....

But I'm uninstalling the toolbar......

Don't let them fool you - PR isn't going anywhere for good....
They just wan't us to think so.....

I'll re-install - when they're offering something in return....

realestate · 08-19-2004, 03:35 AM

Yes, privacy is important if you want to take advantage of seo. It is difficult to make money without doing any business or anything illegal. Running a directory seems to work, but seems to require enormous amount of time to spend.

UKZJ007 · 08-19-2004, 03:56 AM

Haha, Someones in phase 1 of anger - Denial and jumping straight to last step - action.

I, Brian · 08-19-2004, 01:56 PM

Just uninstall it if you hate the fact that people are making you jump through hoops to provide free marketing research for billion dollar corporations - and all just so you can look at a little green line.

Never tried installing any toolbars on Firefox.

Dominic · 08-19-2004, 02:39 PM

Fair enough to uninstall.

The reason why PR and other online checking tools are so addictive is for many webmasters outcomes from your site are limited or incremental. So the feedback or positive reinforcement you get from seeing the little green bar increase or serps improve a tiny bit or backlinks increase are like throwing a bone to a hungry dog.

Personally I'm going to leave it installed because I use the search box and search site functions very heavily. (addict)

I don't know if the deskbar records info but that may be an alternative if you want to keep search.

tommy2tone · 08-19-2004, 04:07 PM

I'm uninstalling! Viva la causa!

Runilo · 08-19-2004, 08:46 PM

That information was given upon installation of the toolbar.

I had the option of choosing yes or no if i wanted to send them information

clasione · 08-19-2004, 10:36 PM

They say if you turn off the pagerank and direcotry tab - it doesn't record the sites you visit.....

They say???

sem4u · 08-20-2004, 12:24 AM

I am sure that it was true. By enabling the advanced features I knew what I was allowing Google to do.

seoguru · 08-20-2004, 01:50 AM

Google wa previously spying on computers through its toolbar now its even spying on mails through Gmail.

Google is going to be another Microsoft, might be even bigger.

sem4u · 08-20-2004, 02:16 AM

Google only matches ads up to the content of the emails. If you don't like the TOS then don't sign up. It really is as simple as that!

Jim · 08-20-2004, 04:32 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by seoguru

Google wa previously spying on computers through its toolbar now its even spying on mails through Gmail.

Google is going to be another Microsoft, might be even bigger.

They just bring adds matching the content of your email with an automated code. Nobody is reading your emails.

SVB · 08-20-2004, 04:38 AM

Yeah do you think that some multi billion dollar company is reading every one of the thousands of emails sent all the time on gmail? Its just a piece of code that looks for keywords in your email. Not all emails have ads, you have to have a keyword that is in an ad registered with the service.

Pimpen 2010 · 08-20-2004, 09:25 AM

So hold on, why are people uninstlling the Google Toolbar? It looks at sites you visit? Or what...?

Jim · 08-20-2004, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pimpen 2010

So hold on, why are people uninstlling the Google Toolbar? It looks at sites you visit? Or what...?

It's about PR losing its importance. i.e. I use Google Toolbar just to check PR of the sites. My sites and the others... If PR becomes useless then why to use the toolbar?
I'll wait and see if PR really becomes useless or not. If it does, I don't think I'll hesitate uninstalling it.

Pimpen 2010 · 08-20-2004, 10:40 AM

So people are uninstalling the toolbar becuase they think PR won't update again?

I, Brian · 08-20-2004, 10:49 AM

Interesting article

http://www.google-watch.org/bigbro.html

Jim · 08-20-2004, 11:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pimpen 2010

So people are uninstalling the toolbar becuase they think PR won't update again?

No, even if it gets updated, they think that SERPs have nothing to do with PR anymore. And I think PR is so over-rated that some people miss the real picture. Who really cares about a PR7 site if Google doesn't direct a good traffic to that site?
One of the points that clasione states is, PR != SERPs, hence PR != more traffic anymore. Please correct me if I'm thinking wrong though.

Pimpen 2010 · 08-20-2004, 02:18 PM

I thought PR never matters what you rank on SE's?

arius · 08-20-2004, 04:13 PM

Why not switch browsers. Get Mozilla Firefox.

Add their GoogleBar extension. Get the PR display without getting spied on.

Acutally, I guess they will still be spying on you if they log your queries:

A typical Page Rank request looks like:
http://toolbarqueries.google.ca/sear...2Emsn%2Ecom%2F

They'll know what site you were going to based on that.
They'd have your IP Address as well.
I guess you could use a free proxy service to surf privately if you were really concerned. You just expand your circle of trust to include the Proxy Service people though.