[B]e mindful of Google's watchful eye online. It is literally everywhere, and it does not forget. Everything you do under Google's watchful eye impacts your personal brand and reputation.
My take: This is quite a list, and I think the blogger makes a good point.
But as I argued with my
recent observations about Facebook, and how much it knows about you and your network, I think it's essential, if you're going to play in this cyberworld we're building, to also flood the system with lots of useless data and
red herrings.
Online, you can be anyone you want to be.
Assume pseudonyms and nicknames whenever you want, change your age, change your gender, change your location, and use all of these services to your benefit.
After all, the information you find, some of the activities in which you
participate, and the connections and
cyberfriends you make using these tools -- search engines, social networking sites, web applications -- also help you and bring you enjoyment.
I don't believe that you are defined soley by your media-consumption habits, and let's face it, the primary reason people really want to track this stuff is to sell you something.
Yes, I acknowledge some Big Brotherish surveillance issues as well, but a) you're not doing anything illegal on The Interweb, are you, and b) when people say it's not about the money, it's about the money.
So that's what it's all comes down to in the end: the Internet is just one big shopping mall in the sky.
Sell, sell, sell.
Commerce.
Can't we do better things with this technology?