:: Google, how I used to love thee! ::

It seems its time to look for a Dogpile toolbar for Mozilla!

Why?

Read on...

Back in the long-ago day of 1999, when I as a then-developing Googliophile was extolling the virtues of the super search engine, I would tell my enraptured (or was it captive?) audience all about why Google was great. To make a long story very short, it boiled down to one thing: Focus.

Unlike their rivals over at Yahoo and MSN, Google kept it simple, easy and focused on one thing only -- great search results. Not for Google were the bells and whistles of so-called Portals. Pay for positioning? Ads? Why bother? Free web-based email for the masses? No way!

Oh how things have changed.

In the last 90 days, Google has fiddled with their search algorithm, rendering it far less efficient and accurate (The answer for all searches these days seems to be something on eBay). They've added on a bunch of other services I've not even bothered to figure out. But perhaps the most striking sign that today's Google isn't my beloved Google of old is the news I read in Information Week today that says that Google is "in a fierce fight for web supremacy" which somehow translates to the fact that they are going to be offering "Gmail", a free web-based email service chock full of advertising links. Like fleas on a dog's back, these ad links will go along with your email to assault the eyes of your unsuspecting email recipients, whether you (or they) like it or not.

Google, how I used to love thee!