Gmail users place 1M calls in 24 hours. Discover more than 3 million Google eBooks from your choice of booksellers and devices. In Defense of Google, Or Why Consumer Watchdog is Full of It. The self-appointed Consumer Watchdog activist group is running a Times Square jumbotron advertisement lambasting Google as a massive invader of your privacy, caricaturing its CEO Eric Schmidt as a creepy, high-tech ice cream vendor who profiles children.
The video (above) is just the latest from Consumer Watchdog, a foundation-funded group that partial to splashy campaigns. The group has hired former reporter John Simpson to be a “hell raiser” focused on Google, and he’s been remarkably good at it, even when the facts aren’t on his side. While there’s plenty of reasons to keep a critical eye focused on the search and advertising giant, Consumer Watchdog’s ad is a dishonest, factually inaccurate joke that shamefully got plenty of uncritical media attention, including from my colleague David Kravets at Wired.com.
Google TV: A Swiss-Army Approach to Internet TV. After I attended Cisco’s unveiling of its ūmi telepresence system this morning, I hopped in a cab and went to Logitech’s launch event for Revue, its Google TV box.
It made for a fascinating comparison. Cisco’s product, like Apple TV and Roku, is about doing one thing. All there devices compete with Revue, because it does many things: Whew. (I’m probably forgetting a capability or two.)