Insider Chatter by Donna Bogatin

Google’s GrandCentral non-paying “customers” are up in arms! The free beta service has egg on its face because it could not live up to the pitch it used to obtain no-fee accounts: “one number for life.”

TechCrunch itemizes the pain and suffering non-paying users of the beta startup recently acquired by Google are now subject to, thanks to the non-performance of GrandCentral.

TechCrunch mislabels users of the GrandCentral service, however, in its headline “Google Disconnects GrandCentral Customers”; GrandCentral non-paying beta users are hard-pressed to be “customers” as they are not paying GrandCentral for anything (Merriam-Webster on what a customer is–”one that purchases a commodity or service”):

TechCrunch: The inconvenience of losing a telephone number, particularly for a business, is more than just stationery. Paper telephone listings must be changed (some people still use them), sign writing must be fixed, and every single listing of the old number has to be found and changed. Most land line telephone providers would offer a redirection service for the old number, however with Google it’s simply a matter of 8 days then no more phone number. Every customer that tries calling the old number post cancellation and cannot connect to the business is potentially a lost sale.

Yes, AND that is exactly why serious businesses DO NOT outsource mission critical functions to no-fee, startup, beta services.

Landlines charge for their services so they CAN provide business level services.

Lesson to Google: Stop being SO generous. The best things in life are NOT always free.

After all, if your non-paying users are going to complain about the quality of your no-fee services, why not go the Google Apps Premiere route? The Google brand is worth it, isn’t it?

ALSO: Beware Google Lust on Campus: Gmail Fuels Student Frenzy and HP Cloudprint vs. Google Gmail Paper: Web to Print Heats Up

PLUS: Viacom, NBC Fight For Paid Content Rights

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

Do YOU know where your Google Analytics data is? More importantly, do you REALLY want Google to know all about YOUR Website data?

Who needs Google Analytics! Now more than ever: All is not well in the data cloud for the number one search engine that aspires to rule “Search, Ads and Apps.”

How So? Google is NOT serving up Google Analytics in a timely fashion.

Google nevertheless touts: “Web analytics has moved from being a niche function to becoming a mainstream aspect of the business for companies of all sizes.”

YES: In other words, Web analytics is a mission critical function. It should be handled accordingly then, in-house or with a neutral third-party, BUT NOT THROUGH GOOGLE!

WHY NOT? Google owned Analytics is not an arms length, neutral third party. Google has a vested interest in knowing and understanding Google Analytics third-party Webmaster data resulting from both AdWords campaigns and advertising campaigns placed with competitors.

What does Google do with all the Website activity information it tracks and manipulates about what is going on the Web properties of others?

Who really knows? As is typical Google fashion, the Google Analytics Terms of Service, coupled with the Google Privacy Policy, are not clear cut and provide Google with ample discretionary room for exclusions, disclaimers and general “outs” to suit its purposes, whatever they may be.

Google Analytics offers marketing speak assurances about the sanctity of the business data it extracts from Websites:

Google takes the trust people place in us very seriously, and is pledged to safeguard the privacy of your corporate data. We understand that web analytics data is sensitive information, so we accord it the ironclad protection it deserves.

In its legal speak, however, Google is not so iron clad about the “sanctity” of the information it gleans from the Web operations of third-parties.

Below are excerpts of the Google Analytics documentation: How Google defines “Customer Data” that it collects on the customers of the Websites that use Google Analytics and what it says it has the right to do with the data it collects from the Google Analytics tracked Websites.

“Customer Data” means the data concerning the characteristics and activities of visitors to your website that is collected through use of the UTM and then forwarded to the Servers and analyzed by the Processing Software. “Servers” means the servers controlled by Google (or its wholly owned subsidiaries) upon which the Processing Software and Customer Data are stored.

Information Rights. Google and its wholly owned subsidiaries may retain and use, subject to the terms of its Privacy Policy, information collected in Your use of the Service.

The referenced Google umbrella privacy policy which governs all Google actions leaves the Google door wide open for Google Analytics collected data “auditing, research and analysis,” by Google.

Google wants to “organize” all the world’s information for “safekeeping” on its servers throughout the world. Companies’ customer data, however, ought to indeed be treated as mission critical, and therefore as proprietary.

The best place for proprietary safekeeping is in-house, the second best is a secure, disinterested, neutral service provider.

The number one search engine and search advertising engine and contextual advertising engine and feed manager and soon display advertising engine…is not a neutral third-party service vendor. What’s more, Google competes directly against all of the “search engines and referral sources” that it tracks in Google Analytics.

Moral of the Google Analytics story? Declare Webmaster independence: Ditch it, now!

ALSO BEWARE: How Google Owns YOUR FeedBurner History and How Commtouch Wins in Google Postini Enterprise Battle and Google GrandCentral: Who Needs Wiretaps?

PLUS: FCC to Google: You’re NOT the Boss of Me!

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

What does Google’s acquisition of GrandCentral Communications have in common with Google’s love-hate relationship with Michael Moore’s Sicko? Google’s malleable, disposable supposedly guiding corporate principles.

Upon acquiring GrandCentral, Google conveniently ditched its founding Brin & Page corporate mission to “organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful “in favor of a decidely GrandCentral friendly one.

SEE: BREAKING: New Google Mission! Watch Out World

In the Google Michael Moore drama, inconsistent, reactive coporate PR subsititutes for real business integrity, ad nauseam.

The Google Sicko drama timeline in its not so glory:

June 29: “Does negative press make you Sicko” penned by Lauren Planner, on behalf of Google, Inc., at the Google Health Advertising Blog.

In Google Health: Lambast Doctors, Sell Medical Ads, I analyse in-depth how the Google sales pitch to the health care industry to buy AdWords as an antidote to “media” propensity to dwell on the “worst” of big health care business is in direct contradiction of Google’s own strategy to dwell on the “worst” of health service providers in pushing its Google Health business.

Google Health architect, and Google VP engineering, Adam Bosworth, on how the American public is at big medical risk, in drastic need of Google intervention:

At some point in a patient’s life, the odds of them being treated in a way which doesn’t follow the guidelines and rules is 45%. There are estimates that somewhere between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die every year from a preventable medical error at a hospital, or about 150 to 300 preventable inpatient deaths a day. And approximately 770,000 people are injured or die each year in hospitals from an adverse drug event. There are roughly 5000 preventable medical errors a day taking place at doctor’s offices.

Is Google deliberately weakening consumer confidence in the reliability of U.S. health care delivery? Bosworth does not cite any sources for HIS indictment of the nations’ medical practioners.

July 1: “My opinion and Google’s,” once again penned by Lauren Turner, on behalf of Google, Inc., at the Google Health Advertiisng Blog.

In Google’s Medical Problem: Where is Adam Bosworth, Google Health Architect?, I analyze in-depth how the supposed retraction actually serves to double-down on the Google AdWords pitch to the health care industry, claiming “democratic” contributions to the public dialogue via the multi-billion dollar Google ad auctions.

At the same time, Google circulated a terse, one sentence “Google spokesperson” reaction to the original Turner penned post:

Google has no official opinion on Michael Moore or his movie Sicko.

REALLY? On July 2 Google seemed to FIND an official position on Moore AND Sicko, now proudly touted at the THE OFFICIAL Google Corporate blog, penned by Missy Krasner, Product Marketing Manager, on behalf of Google, Inc.’s “official” reaction.

Google purportedly wants to make the world’s information more “useful.” Why, then is its own communication information incomprehensible double-speak:

We were surprised by the pickup, but perhaps we shouldn’t have been.

Our internal review of the piece before publication failed to recognize that readers would–properly, but incorrectly–impute the criticisms as reflecting Google’s official position.

Google now embraces Moore and Sicko: “Google DOES share many of the concerns that Mr. More expresses about the cost and availability of health care in America,” according to Krasner.

What’s more, Google perks for its rocket scientists are not just free food and massage, Mountain View offers top notch health care options for its highly paid white collar staff. NO uninsured problem at $160 billion market cap Google, the official Google Blog assures.

Google even sprung for 1000 in-house tickets for an apparent PRIVATE screening of Sicko, just for its merry band of well-insured Googlers.

FOOTNOTE: Lauren Turner gets the last double-speak word, with an “update” at her not quite retraction post. Although the post was headlined “My opinion and Google’s,” Turner apparently was confused about her own opinion initially, as has been Google:

As for me, I whole-heartedly believe we should work to improve the quality of health care in America and support the discourse that will drive this change.

What a difference two days makes! Turner now proclaims, loud and proud, HER position on the quality of U.S. health care, at the Google Health Advertising Blog, as an update to the post where she originally disclaimed that: “I doubt that too many people care about my personal opinion.”

How about Hillary Clinton’s opinion on Google AND U.S. health care?

In Google, Hillary Clinton and U.S. Health Care I report in-depth on the REAL Google health care story.

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

Silicon Valley beware: Are you SURE you want a GrandCentral from Google invite!

The latest Googley service by acquisition includes voicemail screening, a so-called “ListenIn” feature. There wiil, in fact, be LOTS of LISTENING IN going on, thanks to Google. Who needs wiretaps?

GrandCentral by Google on “RECORDING CONVERSATIONS”:

GrandCentral provides a function that allows Subscriber to record individual telephone conversations. The laws regarding the notice and notification requirements of such recorded conversations vary by state to state. Subscriber is responsible for applying the local laws in the relevant jurisdiction when using this feature.

RIGHT! And YouTubers are “responsible” for applying copyright law while uploading pirated videos to YouTube!

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse spells out the legal and privacy implications inherent in a service facilitating turnkey recording of private telephone communications:

IS IT LEGAL TO RECORD TELEPHONE CALLS?

Both the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) have acknowledged the importance of privacy in telephone conversations by placing additional restrictions on tape recording such conversations.

California law does not allow tape recording of telephone calls unless all parties to the conversation consent (California Penal Code 632), or they are notified of the recording by a distinct “beep tone” warning (CPUC General Order 107-B(II)(A)(5)).

Federal law allows recording of phone calls and other electronic communications with the consent of at least one party to the call. A majority of the states and territories have adopted laws based on the federal standard. But 12 states, including California, require the consent of all parties to the call. These are are California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington.

It is not always clear which law, state or federal, applies to specific situations. This depends on where the call originates, why the recording is being made and who places the call. To stay within the law, you may wish to refrain from taping calls you make, but be aware that in certain situations others may be recording your conversations with them.

The California Supreme Court ruled in July 2006 that companies calling Californians from outside the state must comply with the state’s all-party consent law. Prior to this unanimous decision, it was not clear if the federal one-party standard would apply to interstate calls. ( Kearney v. Smith Barney, S124739)

Google may in fact be at legal risk itself by being a party to unlawful recordings of private telephone conversations. Google is at multi-billion dollar DMCA risk at YouTube. GrandCentral may become another “user generated content” prospective liability for Google.

Google, of course, is not worried. Mountain View happily carries on its (not so) Privacy Policy of ensuring it is able to retain every piece of user data gleaned from GrandCentral usage in perpetuity in the big, bad Google cloud.

What happens within the Google systems, stays within the Google server farms, forever. Google on GrandCentral user “choices”:

You may organize or delete your voicemail messages and recorded conversations through your GrandCentral inbox.

You may terminate your account by contacting support@grandcentral.com. Such deletions or terminations will take immediate effect in your account view.  Residual copies of deleted messages and accounts may take up to 60 days to be deleted from our active servers and may remain in our offline backup systems.

In other words, Google license to record and archive the personal communications of others for as long as it wants.

SEE: Free FeedBurner? The HIGH Price You Pay  and Google Global Land Grab: Do Server Farms Matter? and Google is WRONG On Consumer Privacy

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN

Who can not recite the Google mission statement by heart! NEWS FLASH: Google now has a BRAND NEW MISSION!

“Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful?” TOO LIMITING for a company that really does want to RULE THE WORLD!

Latest Google move: GrandCentral Communications, at an estimated price tag of $50 million:

GrandCentral offers many features that complement the phone services you already use. If you have multiple phone numbers (e.g., home, work, cell), you get one phone number that you can set to ring all, some, or none of your phones, based on who’s calling. This way, your phone number is tied to you, and not your location or job. The service also gives you one central voice mailbox. You can listen to your voicemails online or from any phone, forward them to anybody, add the caller to your address book, block a caller as spam, and a lot more. You can even listen in on voicemail messages from your phone while they are being recorded, or switch a call from your cell phone to your desk phone and back again.

GrandCentral is now officially GrandCentral from Google.

For posterity sake, below is a visual of the classic Google corporate founding mission statement that CEO Eric Schmidt & Company have not ceased to flaunt in justification for every encroachment into the content and data property of others: YouTube, DoubleClick, Feedburner, Gmail, iGoogle…

BUT NOW, Google has decided the quaint WORDLWIDE mission envisaged by founding students Brin & Page is not sufficiently universal to contain Google’s vast all encompasing ambitions. The world is Google’s oyster and it is ready to harvest, big time.

Google Acquires GrandCentral Communications, Google heralds: “A company that provides services for managing your voice communications.” How Googley? NOW IT IS, thanks to Google mission statement dexterity!

Google apparently is prepared to create different mission statements to accomodate each inroad into industries NOT inherent to what used to be the singular Google call to arms: “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible.”

In welcoming GrandCentral to the Google fold, Google TACKS ON a GrandCentral accomodation. Google’s misison, as of today, is NOW:

Organize the world’s information and PROVIDE SERVICES AND FEATURES THAT ENHANCE THE COLLABORATIVE EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION BETWEEN OUR USERS.

Is “collaborative exchange of information between our users” just another way of making information “universally accessible and useful”? Google will certainly say so. The “world’s information” at issue, however, is the personal, private voice communications of individuals, NOT inanimate Web pages.

Moreover, the world is on notice, the entire world is fair Google game, as Google has well acknowledged in another quaint relic from its founding students’ wistful past “Ten Things We Have Found to Be True”:

When we first wrote these “10 things” four years ago, we included the phrase “Google does not do horoscopes, financial advice or chat.” Over time we’ve expanded our view of the range of services we can offer –- web search, for instance, isn’t the only way for people to access or use information -– and products that then seemed unlikely are now key aspects of our portfolio. This doesn’t mean we’ve changed our core mission; just that the farther we travel toward achieving it, the more those blurry objects on the horizon come into sharper focus (to be replaced, of course, by more blurry objects).

What are some of the (in)famous”Ten Things”?

“Democracy on the Web works” AND “You can make money without doing evil”

Very quaint indeed!

SEE: Google Sicko Timeline: Attack, Retract, Pander and Google Exec Skirts CPA Advertising Evil

CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN