Google buying Pyra is significant to this blog because Blogger was the first piece of blog software I used ... back in 2000. Most people don't have the luxury of self-hosting their blogging software like MT so Blogger is very useful. Although lately it's been doing wonderful things like not letting me publish and corrupting my templates. Hmmm ...

There has been some negative coverage of Google lately. It's the kind of coverage that comes with being popular and having people thinking you are up to no good. If you are really that concerned about Google keeping track of your searches don't allow Google's cookies and use anonymizer software. Even with cookies and an IP address what privacy information could they possibly glean from that? Don't be so freakin paranoid.

And while we're on the topic of cookies, do you really think that Google is the only site that does this? Every major site does this on some level. For example, The New York Times tracks people by username. Do I care that they know I read technical articles and probably have my DSL IP logged? No.

But I digress - Google is not a monster and you don't have to use it. The worst thing about technical people crying wolf is that the general public doesn't know what a wolf even looks like. Don't be "that guy", man. Don't do it.

Update: Slashdot has a post on the article.