Web 2.0.11562 beta

This has got to be the time to celebrate Google. They have done so much right this past year or so, and despite making some poor decisions, they made some great ones this week. Pretty much everybody has read about them holding out when the DOJ paid them a visit to request their considerable search records. Not an option for small companies like mine. But when giants like Microsoft, Yahoo! and AOL don’t put up any fight, you have to admire Google’s chutzpah.

Google started late in the IM game, but nevertheless it should be noted that they have chosen the federated solution, sticking to the awesome and open XMPP/Jabber standard.

Privacy is a subject I care a lot about and intend to write about occasionally. I care because it’s been under vigorous attack. Part of the blame must go to the Bush administration, who want such broad powers of intelligence gathering that our freedoms have been significantly abridged. The Bush administration fights on for more breaches in the social contract that should guarantee our personal liberties.

At least as much blame goes to the old school, short-sighted executives running some of our largest corporations. So many of our most powerful companies are led not by luddites, but by folks who just don’t get the Internet. It’s frustrating for those of us that think we see tons of revenue potential there.

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Consider Seth Goldstein’s new business venture called Root Markets for a moment. CNN Money has this article this article outlining the new service.

This new venture aims to allow users to store large amounts of their personal, marketable data to be used for their own enrichment. The same entities will be interested in that data, only now the user would be empowered to aggregate the information in a more comprehensive fashion, and to enter into only those agreements they want to in order to share that data only when sufficiently motivated to do so.
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