Does it matter?

I like the idea of having things on which I am working available on-line, with someone else looking after their backup. So, when Google launched GMail, I was an early adopter, and it has become my principal mail account. I like its different organising principles and its accurate spam filter. When they acquired Writely, I quickly adopted that as I did the Spreadsheet. It's convenient to work from a computer anywhere irrespective of it being Microsoft or Linux or Mac. You can even keep Firefox on a memory stick so not even the host browser need be used. Fresh on the heels of their purchase of YouTube, Google today consolidated Writely and the Spreadsheet into "Google Docs". I'm not convinced this is a step forward, partly because I like small and simple applications (unlike Microsoft Office) . But it's free, does what I want, and the collaboration option of Writely is useful - two or more people can work on a document at the same time. You can also write directly to your blog!

But I remind myself that Google is not a charity and has the world's most powerful indexing service that can instantly pull together any number of tiny snippets of information that alone mean nothing but in aggregate may say more about you. Does this matter? I have always worked on the precautionary principle that the internet is not secure, and if you don't want something to be known, don't have it on a networked computer. This includes any computer on broadband.

Perhaps we are still enjoying internet freedom because the media barons have yet to work out how to "monetize" it. They will, so I enjoy it and learn while I can. Then I'll go back to pen and paper and writing letters. The hand and eye better coordinated.

I've added the link "Living in Japan" to the sidebar. Recommended.