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(rt) Let the Google Web Accelerator (GWA) critics speak for themselves. Except for some (flagged) omissions, all quotes posted as are.

The Contractor

Yeah, it’s just wonderful….provides a nice fast proxy for site downloaders/rippers.

Source: ↗ www.webmasterworld.com …

graywolf
Google says:

Please don’t use any automated query scripts on our website.

Google does:

Implements prefetching of pages through automated processes to everyone else’s website.

Source: ↗ www.webmasterworld.com …

digitalghost

Crashed Firefox for me too. Had to uninstall and reboot. Tried it twice. Same results both time.

Source: ↗ www.webmasterworld.com …

chrisk999

Just tested a price-comparison site of mine, which charges advertisers on a cpc basis.

After visiting the page and waving the mouse around a bit, it logged clicks on nearly all advertisers’ links. Bad news for advertisers like myself.

The ppc companies that offer server-side ppc integration scripts will have to quickly set the new Google IP to generate $0 clicks before publishers get a one-off windfall.

[…]

Second to advertisers paying for not-clicked clicks, I am now getting Google US ads in the UK.

Seems that the ↗ Google.com … –> Google.co.uk geoip redirect is messed up with the accelerator turned on.

Source: ↗ www.webmasterworld.com …

mrMister

OK, I’ve done a limited bit of research on this little Web Corrupter of Google’s. Heres my findings…

It doesn’t take note of the last modified date of the page. if the page has been modified since the last cache, Google will still show you the cached version.

It doesn’t obey robots.txt

It is capable of adding items to shopping baskets without you having to click on anything.

Source: ↗ www.webmasterworld.com …

incrediBILL

it just doesn’t add up to create meaningless technology to solve a problem that doesn’t exist [anyone you know perceive broadband slowness as an issue?] and create a bunch of new problems that didn’t exist before. Even if your local broadband provider WAS slow due to overloading this will just make it worse, not better.

So WHAT IS THE MOTIVATION of choking the net with more requests and slowing down access to some dynamic sites (now potentially overloaded as you can’t cache them and make them work properly) by the very nature of technology designed to make it faster?

Source: ↗ www.webmasterworld.com …

Craven de Kere

My sites struggle under their load as is. Google requests that we do not send automated queries to them, as it increases their load without monetization and can cause them problems. This is just plain meanspirited to unleash these unrequested requests on us.

Cry foul webmasters, it’s not fair for Google to generate unrequested requests to our sites.

Source: ↗ www.webmasterworld.com …

Some fun making by Nathan Weinberg , too. at least. Here’s the:

world exclusive first GWA joke:

Do you think this was the only way they could speed up Blogger?

And, in a more serious vein:

I thought Google was supposed to be competing with Microsoft? Instead of a Google browser (which I feel is a stupid idea anyways), Google best efforts are trying to replace Windows’ find feature and saving you a few seconds here or there. Meanwhile Microsoft is building Longhorn, IE7, Xbox 2, a competitor to the PDF format, and future versions of Office, antivirus, antispyware and other programs. Is Google playing to beat Microsoft, or are they just playing with (useful) toys? I like this product, but I expect to find it at some site called “Mike’s Kewl Downloads”, not ↗ Google.com ….

Source: ↗ google.blognewschannel.com …

Nathan Enns of Fybersearch isn’t too enthused, either:

I am not sure how much I like this tool. Web pages load very quickly on my high speed connection already. Now Google wants to speed up the process by fractions of a second and in return I have give them a complete list of the web pages that I view.

I do not have a big problem telling them what I do online but what do I get in return?

Source: ↗ blog.fybersearch.com …

nullbit
if I checked my PMs here at DP the Google toolbar would only know I visited the URL for the PM page, this new service would allow them to actually read my private messages.

Source: ↗ forums.digitalpoint.com …

Michael Zimmer blogs:

Now, by having users route their browsing through the GWA proxy, Google can track all of your browsing habits, not just those on Google’s sites or within reach of Google’s cookie. From Google’s perspective, having this wealth of web traffic data to augment their PageRank algrothms is highly beneficial. Google can learn exactly which links into a site are used, what time of day, how long you stay, and so on. In short, all the information that Nielsen Net-Ratings collects from their volunteers, Google can now collect from its users directly. An added benefit for Google might be how such information could be integrated into an expanded version of TrustRank, utilizing actual user habits to try to ferret out cross-linking scams and other ways some websites try to scam their way into higher PageRank rankings.
[…]
Up until now, Google only could use its cookie to track and aggregate your browsing habits from Google’s own services & sites. For people utilizing GWA, Google could now log every URL you visit via their proxy logs. This makes many of the privacy concerns with personalized search and Google’s My Search History dwarf in comparison.

Consider: First, Google collected your search information. Next they scanned your email. Add to that your Usenet posts, where you’re going or where you live, what you’re buying and reading, what kind of news you’re interested in, and maybe even who your friends are. You put it all together, that is quite a bit of personal information at their disposal.

Source: ↗ michaelzimmer.blogspot.com …

Last but not least, here are some voices from Threadwatch one of which has already filed a formal complaint with New York State Office of the Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s office:

foo

I ask, is this just “Autolink Phase Two”?

FACT - this “Webaccelerator” gives Google the opportunity to fiddle with the raw HTML of a website before it is received by the browser.

Source: ↗ www.threadwatch.org …

fantomaster

In any case that’ll even give them a monster database of all sites’ cookies including those vendors actually daring not to advertise with Goo in the first place.
[…]
Googlebar’s bad enough already, but this is spyware on steroids.

Spitzer, where are you, when we actually need you?

Source: ↗ www.threadwatch.org …

claus

But personally i tend to see Google as a private enterprise that is now building an “internet proxy”, or a second version of the internet that lives on top of the real thing. Yes you may think AOL 2.

That proxy will keep getting better, and more fun features will be added - the latest is speed improvements over the real web. I’m not that concerned that a few years down the line that proxy will be on-demand and pay-to-use, i’m more concerned about what elements from the real internet won’t make it to the proxy, or “mass media internet”.

When it was just AOL, we could all lean back and think, “Well, that’s just a US thing - convenience and consumerism rules over there. These people don’t even mind that they don’t get full access, they’re even stupid enough to pay extra for it.”

With Google it’s a bit more worrying since (a) Google is everywhere, and (b) Google claims to index all pages, and (c) Google never shows everything. Claiming “everything” but showing “only some” - as in the difference from eight billion to one thousand. Is that credible? IMHO, not really. It’s essentially “AOL on steroids” by now - or getting there quick.

Source: ↗ www.threadwatch.org …

BTW, if you’d like to chime in on the action with Spitzer, you can do it here via this→ online complaints form.

Also, please read:
↗ Google – The Coming Out of a Datascraper Spook

And:
↗ New Google Proxy IP Range for Web Accelerator Detected

[Update 2005-05-06]
And here’s what to do about it:
↗ fantomTip:
How To Block Google’s Web Accelerator
↗ fantomTip:
How To Block Google’s Web Accelerator – Update

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