Google's latest wheeze: Work out these blurry house numbers for us

Google, the pride of open everything, uses real blurry house number images as its Captchas, so that the general public can tell them what the number really is.

An openly available image of Sergey Brin in the open air.

(Credit: Google+,Sergey Brin)

 

I have spent much of the day blurry-eyed, moved by Google's Sergey Brin declaring his company the only great defender of the open Web.

The tears have, it has come to my attention, mainly emerged from laughter at Google's sweet, thoughtful gall that everything it claims the world desires just happens coincidentally to benefit it commercially.

Still, no sooner had my eyes dried a little when the Telegraph offered me Google' latest exemplar of sheer, beautiful openness.

For it seems that Google is using real images from Street View as security checks. Yes, if you want to access your own Google account, the company is asking you to decipher a slightly blurry image of a real house number.

It seems that if enough people decide on a particular number, then Google sharpens up the image on Street View.

Yes, you are being asked to work for Google, Openly. For free. And if you don't, well, you may not be able to access your own Google account.

The Telegraph naturally declares that certain privacy groups are foaming at the lips on hearing of this little scheme -- which, according to a Google spokesman, only occurs in 10 percent of security questions.

But surely some people, on hearing of this and Google being fined $25,000 by the FCC for, um, non-compliance with its inquiry into Wi-Fi eavesdropping, might feel that openness has a highly subjective definition in Google's complex collective cranium.

Google's version of the open Web seems very simple: let us get at everything. Whether it's books, streets, houses, Facebook accounts, iPhoto accumulations or perhaps even the remains of your spaghetti bolognese.

Something is open if Google can see it and scrape it. And when Google sees it and scrapes it, it can create a fuller picture of every element of your life -- just in case, you know, some lonely advertiser might pass by and show interest.

Some might call this freedom. There again, doesn't freedom sometimes entail being free not to let rapacious, baby-faced organizations peer into your life?

by Chris Matyszczyk 
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET.
.
Newscribe : get free news in real time

Related posts & articles:
Google's Business Experiment: Nothing but Web
Google+ face-lift triggers jibes over extra white space
Google plans major revamp for search engine
Google acquires more IBM patents
FCC Proposes: Fine for Google Wi-Fi snooping 'obstruction' 
Google testing Google News tweaks
Sergey Brin, Google: Web freedom faces greatest threat ever. 'It's scary.' (nextlevelofnews.com)
Google's Sergey Brin: China, SOPA, Facebook Threaten the 'Open Web' (wired.com)

Display Ads, Facebook Beating Google In The 'Battle For Eyeballs'

Tweet

Image by Getty Images via @daylife By Agustino Fontevecchia, Forbes Staff

Facebook’s Zuckerberg and Google’s Schmidt meet Merkel and Sarkozy >>

Facebook is “winning the battle for eyeballs and advertising in the internet display arena,” according to a report by Enders Analysis.  While Google is still “the king of internet advertising” with greater global reach than the social network, Facebook’s more dynamic growth, and rising rates of engagement and usage, suggest it will continue to dominate the display ad market going forward.

  Google Taking Over 40% Of Total U.S.Online  Ad Spend

Google’s net display ad revenues totaled $1.5 billion in 2010, according to Enders Analysis, and will rise to $2.5 billion in 2012.  Facebook, on the other hand, will report 2011 display revenues at about $3.5 billion, and can expect those to rise to about $5.3 billion in 2012.

While Facebook is clearly the market leader in display, Google remains the internet’s largest advertising player.  In 2012, its revenues will hit $35 billion, 90% of which come from Google’s search operations.
 Jeff Bezos Eyeing Apple's Lunch? Amazon Smartphone

 

Bringing all these numbers together is the fast-growing display ad market.  The company founded by Sergey Brin and Larry Page has proven its capacity in transforming the search ad market, becoming practically a monopolistic force.  But display remains underdeveloped.  According to former Google CEO, and current Chairman Eric Schmidt, the display market could grow to $200 billion in coming years.  “Despite Google’s and Facebook’s growing strength, the online display market remains highly fragmented, [Enders Analysis] project[s] their aggregate share of global spend will be just over 25% in 2012.” 

Don't Worry About Google's Rising Costs And Tighter  

  There are four major players in the display ad world: Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo. Google and Facebook exert their dominance via reach and consumption. In terms of monthly unique visitors, Google beats its competitors with 1.1 billion users, about 75% of the global audience. Facebook counts with 770 billion, but is growing at an impressive pace, accounting for 18% of the net increase in internet usage in Q3, compared with a combined 1% for Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo combined.

 Mark Zuckerberg's Private Photos Exposed Thanks To Facebook 

 

Mark Zuckerberg’s social network derives its strength from engagement.  Users spend an average 12 minutes per day on Facebook, a figure that is up 40% over the last 12 months.  That’s about 15% of total time spent online, compared with something like 10% for Google (which ranks second among the big display players).

Facebook’s “expanding reach and rising time spent on the site” are the keys to its display ad success.  Revenues will continue to grow faster than over at Google, particularly given the rise of the social media ad format and the surge in programmatic ad buying (through the use of exchanges, networks, demand side platforms, etc) which will make it easier to “programme [sic] and optimize large-scale ad campaigns.”



Also playing to Facebook’s favor is Google’s weakness in the social sphere.  “At this stage, Google’ late entrant look-alike social network, Google+, looks set to remain niche,” explained the analysts.

Facebook has slowly opened up its display ad platform to outer players, and will continue to improve it through the addition of new products, such as the “rumored rollout of ads on its highly popular mobile apps” (which run on Apple’s iPhones and Google’s Android OS).  But these don’t necessarily play against Google.  As mentioned above, the market is fragmented and small, and still has room to grow.  “Rising advertiser demand for both scale and performance will make many publishers increasingly reliant on one or both of the internet giants for traffic and revenue growth,” explained the analysts.

Newscribe : get free news in real time