And never forget that you're a ReadWriteWeb product, not its customer. You don't pay for the articles, your eyeballs are sold to RWW sponsors and partners.
Sigh. Hypocrisy much? This is how most of the web works. The constant attacks on Google or Facebook over it are ridiculous and tiring.
His point may be a tired one, but it's valid. We rely on Google for a lot and would do well to keep their allegiances in mind; all the more so because Google has traditionally been something of a benefactor to the web user (although the cracks are starting to show since they lose money on most of their free services). The reason his hypocrisy is irrelevant is because we don't have any illusions about ReadWriteWeb's allegiances, and even if we did we don't rely on them for shit.
Some of us do go out of our way to avoid relying on them for "a lot". I know we're a small minority, but to people like me, it's worth the effort.
I disagree, but I'll get to that. First, even if it was, it's repeated every single day to the point of exhaustion. And I still wouldn't have minded it, if this was a cautionary tale about the dangers of relying on free services instead of a hate piece against Google (oh, and with a jab at Facebook).
Secondly, how's the allegiance when Sony pushed a rootkit up their consumer's, or tried to force them to sign away their rights? Or expensive Ubisoft games that stop working when your net connection goes down? Or what about SOPA lobbying, think that will benefit their consumers?
(Most) companies are loyal to themselves, their top managers and possibly their shareholders. Whether we're consumers or products is a red herring.
The second point, that "users are the product" is not a novel insight, makes perfect sense.
It's not just that the author is a hypocrite (which he is). It's that his argument sort of invalidates or at least incites suspicion of itself.
This is all aside from the point that the "you are the product" argument is a reductive, partisan talking point: http://blog.byjoemoon.com/post/9910020865/you-are-the-produc...
"anything said in Latin sounds profound". A recent
ironic Latin phrase to poke fun at people who seem to
use Latin phrases and quotations only to make themselves
sound more important or "educated".