Google Warning: How GOOG 411 Tricks Consumers
Beware Google, really. I oft underscore how the GOOG secret weapon is a four letter word: SPIN. Google is now wreaking havoc with another four letter word: GOOG (411).
I also often warn how Google Services’ Privacy Policies enable Google to do whatever it likes, for as long as it likes, with users’ private information that consumers willingly hand to Google on a (free) silver platter. The nefarious results of “whatever Google likes,” is now rearing its ugly head, thanks to Mountain View’s devious GOOG 411.
Google hawks GOOG 411 to consumers as its “new 411 service”: “With GOOG-411, you can find local business information completely free, directly from your phone. You can access 1-800-GOOG-411 from any phone, anywhere, at anytime.”
YAY Google? Once again to the FREE consumer rescue?
NO, IT IS GOOGLE TRICKING USERS ONCE MORE, TO THE SOLE ADVANTAGE OF THE $200 BILLION MARKET CAP CORPORATION.
Why has Google been spending money to advertise GOOG 411 to consumers when the Googleplex prides itself on never spending a penny on marketing?
Google’s best friends at Search Engine Land cheered their sightings of GOOG 411 billboards, hailing GOOG 411 billboards as “a bona fide effort by Google to expose the service to people and generate usage”
What’s remarkable with this is that Google is actually doing consumer marketing (a first) for a product and not relying entirely on word of mouth.
NO, what is really remarkable is how gullible many are willing to be, for the sake of Google!
AND, what really matters, is the sake of consumers duped by Google into using GOOG 411 under false pretenses.
A call to GOOG 411 begins with an announcement: “The call is recorded for quality,” BUT THAT IS A GOOGLE LIE.
Marissa Mayer, Google VP, Search Products & User Experience, on the real reason GOOG 411 records calls, as cited by InfoWorld in October:
The reason we really did it is because we need to build a great speech-to-text model … that we can use for all kinds of different things, including video search.
The speech recognition experts that we have say: If you want us to build a really robust speech model, we need a lot of phonemes, which is a syllable as spoken by a particular voice with a particular intonation. So we need a lot of people talking, saying things so that we can ultimately train off of that.
So 1-800-GOOG-411 is about that: Getting a bunch of different speech samples so that when you call up or we’re trying to get the voice out of video, we can do it with high accuracy.
GOOG 411 is NOT a touchy, feely, free Google consumer service, it is a ruse to trick people into giving Google their own personal genetic materials, for free, so that Google can profit from the proprietarty human (very) personal property of millions of innocent consumers.
NOW MORE THAN EVER, USE GOOGLE SERVICES AT YOUR OWN RISK. HERE’S WHY:
Google Privacy Trap: Consumers Beware and
Google is WRONG On Consumer Privacy and
Google is NOT Your Friend
BEWARE FACEBOOK, TOO: SEE: YES! Facebook IS Scarier Than Google! and
Facebook is ‘Sorry’? Savvy Users Will Forget, NOT Forgive, Mark Zuckerberg and
Beacon Privacy Solution: STOP USING FACEBOOK! and
Dear Facebook, Beacon Tracking STILL Evil: Will Zuckerberg Partners Repent? and
Facebook STILL a Danger to Children: Zuckerberg, Attorney General Cuomo in PR Push
MORE GOOGLE DEVIOUSNESS: Google Has Insomnia: Mrs. Manber Beats 21,300,017 SERP and AdWords! and
Google Zeitgeist: $200 University Payola AdWords Scam and
Google Knol: The End of Google.com, NOT Wikipedia