Web 2.0 Summit 2010: Battle Ground for Facebook and Google

Article first published as Web 2.0 Summit 2010: Battle Ground for Facebook and Google on Blogcritics.

Two web titans Google and Facebook must be preparing their rank and file to head on with their rivals. Rivalry seems to be increasing between Google and Facebook for the domination in commercial internet. Amassing millions of users on the internet the two giants are going to present their new plans in Web 2.0 summit 2010, to be held at Palace Hotel in San Francisco for three days from November 15 to 17.

Titans’ Rivalry

Rivalry developed between Goggle’s search engine and social networking service giant Facebook, as they pursued to attract more number of users claiming information monopoly. It is actually a natural development when the market is limited. But, monopolies always prevent competition, making users deprive of new inventions at cheap costs.

While Google is famous for its instant search results, Facebook became famous in social networking handing several tools for users to interact among themselves. Google introduced a new phase to its search engine offering previews of the sites on the search results page itself. It looks crazy when it is known that many users of Facebook are clinging to their PCs even during their sleep in a bid of updating their conservations on Facebook whenever they get up from sleep. Facebook became an obsession to many younger users.

Google introduced “Google Wave” to make available all of its services on a single platform, but failed, as several such services already occupied the internet space. Eventually, Google had to withdraw from promoting Google Wave further. Official announce was made by Google a few months ago to that effect. Now, Google and Facebook are planning to cross their conventional platforms to win more space in commercial internet.

Google intends to enter social networking arena while Facebook plans to start its own email service dubbed as Gmail-killer within Facebook ranks, as reported by the Reuters news agency, quoting Techcrunch blog. Facebook may also provide “@facebook.com” email addresses to existing Facebook users. Last week, Google began blocking a Facebook feature that automatically imports Gmail contacts to Facebook site. Google says Facebook is not allowing its users to import and export of their information.

Why Google is Left Unpunished?

Article first published as Why Google is Left Unpunished? on Blogcritics.

Google is allowed to simply walk away from the confinement of legal system, though it is repeatedly proved by the European and North American countries that it has infringed upon the privacy laws enacted in their countries. Google’s street view project has come under scrutiny from data protection agencies of several countries since the German data commissioner asked Google last year to audit all the data being collected by Street View cars.

Google’s Revelation

Google then revealed that it had discovered the Street View cars were collecting data of personal details from unsecured networks along with the location of wi-fi hotspots. Google has made an unnamed engineer a scapegoat while accepting the mistake it has done. It simply said a code written by an engineer was mistakenly incorporated into the software of the Street View cars.

The question remains here that how Google thinks it is legal to collect the data pertaining to locations of wi-fi hotspots. Are people having wi-fi connections, which are unsecured, meant to be exploited for having unsecured connections? If a house owner forgets to lock his house, and if a theft occurs, will it mean the thief is not supposed to face punishment? Google is only supposed to map the streets but not wi-fi hotspots.

Purposeful Violation

British conservative MP Robert Halfon rejected this as a mistake and alleged that the Google had done the mistake purposefully and it had collected the data for commercial use. This was denied by Google, without giving details of why the collected data was redirected to be stored on hard disks. It seems Google has a policy of not talking too much. Nobody wants it to talk much but it has to talk when its actions are proved to be detrimental to the privacy and human rights of the internet users.

G20 Seoul Summit Delivers Fake Commitments Once Again

Article first published as G20 Seoul Summit Delivers Fake Commitments Once Again on Blogcritics.

G20 summit held in Seoul on November 11 and 12 has failed to reach a concrete agreement to address the rising fears of currency war. It has also failed to bring out guidelines for curbing trade imbalances as envisaged by the world countries amid discouraging conditions of multi-speed growths for various economies. Fifth communique issued by the G20 countries since the financial and economic crisis broke out in 2008, has repeated its rhetoric of addressing concerns of the most vulnerable, providing social protection, decent work and also ensuring accelerated growth in low income countries (or Least Developed Countries).

Jobs at Heart of Recovery!

The communique said the G20 countries were determined to put jobs at the heart of the recovery which is just a big lie. The leaders of the developed countries and the emerging market economies (EMEs) are not ashamed even a bit to give this empty commitment, where at least 100 million have been stripped of their jobs and 120 million have been pushed into hunger afresh after the unprecedented, worst global economic crisis since the great depression has been unleashed by the greedy global financial conglomerates.

There have not been serious attempts to create jobs throughout the world, instead the jobs are lost every day by the austerity measures in European Union countries and jobless growth in the US. Number of economists and analysts along with Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, have dubbed the growth that we are witnessing as “jobless growth.”

Crisis Contributors

BBC news has quoted Obama as saying there should be no controversy about fixing imbalances “that helped to contribute to the crisis that we just went through.” Obama must have lost his senses or have suffered from short term dementia, let us say. Otherwise, G20’s first communique after the financial crisis, and even subsequent communiqués have acknowledged that the financial conglomerates and their risky, greedy financial business practices have created the worst crisis. There was not a mention of trade imbalances contributing the crisis in G20 communiqués, yet Mr. Obama dared to spell it. If Obama likes to fix imbalances, that is well and good, but this type of miscalculations only contribute to rising trade tensions.