Privacy (or the lack thereof) is a major concern with internet users in the present day. I try not to think about it that often, because when I do, it tends to creep me out. Honestly, the amount of knowledge that Google retains is scary. With 58.5 percent of the U.S. market completing their searches on Google-powered sites, and the company holding onto information about your search queries for 18 months, it’s like Google knows everyone’s deepest, darkest secrets. And as history has already shown us, search engine companies aren’t always deserving of our trust. Like the mean girl at school, they nonchalantly share your secrets with everyone, all the while acting as though they’ve done nothing wrong.
Ask.com is aiming to differentiate itself from its competitors (namely Google, Yahoo, and MSN) by providing users with privacy, something that no other search engine company has tried (or wanted) to do. With a new feature called AskEraser, Ask.com users can opt to have cookies deleted from their web browser. This includes their IP addresses, their user ID and session ID cookies, and the text of their search queries through all Ask.com search areas. And you don’t have to be a computer mastermind to activate the function. Beginning this past Monday, Dec. 10, the AskEraser tool has been displayed in the right-hand corner of the Ask.com homepage. You simply click on “AskEraser,” after which a prompt appears explaining what the feature does. Then you press “Turn on AskEraser,” and the process is complete. All it takes is about five seconds, and your search queries will be safe from prying eyes, sort of.
The issue that some critics take with the AskEraser feature is that it’s misleading. The function only works for searches that are completed through Ask.com’s search box, and not for searches that are executed through an Ask.com toolbar on a third-party site. That third-party site can still retain data regarding your search activity. Ask.com also depends upon Google for many of the text-based ads that appear next to its search results, and the AskEraser function cannot delete the search request information that Google receives to help pair ads with specific users. Nevertheless, AskEraser users will have much more confidentiality than those who frequent other search engine sites.
There are doubts that the selling point of privacy will be strong enough to catapult Ask.com higher in the search engine rankings. The company currently holds the fourth-place spot in the U.S., with a 4.7 percent share of the nation’s market. Google, as mentioned above, is first, Yahoo is second with 22.9 percent, and MSN is a distant third at 9.7 percent. Even though AskEraser may not translate into market dominance for Ask.com (Google is way too menacing to go down without a fight), hopefully this marketing tactic will send a clear message to web-based corporations: contrary to popular belief, the current age of internet users doesn’t want everybody knowing their business.
This entry was posted
on Monday, December 17th, 2007 and is filed under Tech issues.
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