(Big) Brother Bill Eyeballs Google

The problem with success is the bigger you are, the more appetizing you are to the Sharks...

The rumour is Microsoft is planning to use its Windows operating system (again) to give it an edge over its competitors.

So what else is new? We've all heard headlines like this before. But now Bill Gates wants to use our private data for ammunition, focussing his crosshairs on Google and poised to fire a lethal salvo for a 'better' search engine.

The theory is the "operating system contains a whole heap of information on the likes, dislikes and preferences of the user - information that could be included as 'metadata' to influence search results and make them more relevant.

With such a search, if you typed in 'cheap flights' and you had a surfing history in your browser of visiting sites related to Spain and had perhaps installed language software to help you learn Spanish, then results that contained flights to Spain would rank higher - at least that's our theory."

Rumours also abound surrounding Google building a browser. The company registered the gbrowser.com site in April and filed patent applications for showing ads on client-side applications, such as a Web browser or browser plug-in.

Going client-side may well be the new frontier for search, but Microsoft will be counting on owning the operating system to give it a distinct advantage."

*This again raises the ugly specter of online privacy concerns. Is it another example of recent trends compromising our privacy? Blog Bloke thinks so.

As more users join the always-on broadband revolution, the lines between our desktop and the internet are becoming even more blurred. The reality is Big Brother is watching and is a reflection of the world that we now live in.

So the Bloke recommends that you follow the golden rule of surfing. Always travel with (clean) cache.

*This post also appeared at Blog Bloke.com