Christopher S. Penn's Awaken Your Superhero - Latest Comments in The Ever Watchful Eye of Google

Re: The Ever Watchful Eye of Google

Creaky — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:23:38 -0000

Chris,
Thanks for this great blogpost about Google. I enjoyed reading it, and also wanted to let you know I have cited it on my blog on 4-10-08, at http://creakysites.wordpress.com/2008/04/10/new...

Creaky

Re: The Ever Watchful Eye of Google

mike mcallen — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 11:50:51 -0000

This is a great post Chris.
It reminded me of something my dad told me as we were driving into our driveway a long time ago. He said he was worried about me being such a smartass. He himself had been a smartass his whole life and he thought he probably would have gone farther in life and been more successful if he held his tongue more in business and around town

As I was a teenager I remember trying to ignore him and as I looked out the window of the new Lexus we were driving in and the large house in Hillsborough, California we lived in I wondered. "is he being a smartass now? he did pretty good for himself."

Someone is always watching, be yourself and if you do something illegal or immoral then people should know you are an ass. Google just helps that along these days.

Thanks again for the great blog.

Re: The Ever Watchful Eye of Google

mitchjoel — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 10:23:34 -0000

I wish I had said that! That quote actually belongs to Chris Anderson - editor of Wired Magazine and Author of The Long Tail.

Re: The Ever Watchful Eye of Google

John Wall — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:17:31 -0000

I'd add another often overlooked item to the list - although they may not be doing much with it, your ISP has access to most of the same information.

Re: The Ever Watchful Eye of Google

Peter O'Connell — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 09:08:49 -0000

Christopher:

Your comments are spot on in accuracy but disappointing too. While we should always be mindful of shooting our mouths off personally or hitting send key too early at ANY time ('thinking before we speak') we still need to be able to have open debate and discussion.

If we become too beholden to or stand in fear of Google tracking our responses or comments, then the on-line community will collapse, dissolve and become meaningless.

I have no doubt there are horror stories that may have incited this post because of people saying something online only to have it come bite them in the ass in a job interview or even an interpersonal situation. And we are in a period of transition (all of us) as to how social media is going to be accepted, used and judged (and how our personal brands will also be accepted, used and judged); its unclear still how this will shake out.

But for the continued success of social media, we can certainly be thoughtful but we must not be censored or silenced by fear of reprisal. Otherwise, social media just becomes another electronic time waster.

A great post, thank you very much for opening the discussion.

Best always,
- Peter