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Google's Office Filter Program  (View post)

Vicki VanValkenburgh [PersonRank 0]

Thursday, May 8, 2008
16 years ago4,016 views

Is google security something that could be useful for consumers? There is a lot of ergonomic appeal in the idea of dealing with google for anti-virus and spyware prevention than norton or mcafee, although I'm just a freelancer with a couple of machines, not an enterprise with dozens of users on a network.

I did go to the google security forum to check out this idea, but was somewhat put off by the number of complaints about how service didn't commence upon payment (there was some problem with the confirmation emails, I think) and the poor service and feedback from google. Still, I would think/hope they'd get those problems ironed out, and it might be something I could just run in the background along with all my other google apps.

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Not sure about security but I wonder how a program that allows the admin to make web pages inaccessible (including e.g. news content) ties into Google's proclaimed mission "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful."

mrbene [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Philip, this application falls directly into the mission of organizing the world's information and making it accessible and useful. Maybe not directly into the "universally" part, but I think that the thought process for corporate use is the same as it is for China – some access is better than no access.

Google has organized information from the internet into broad categories. It's then made those categories accessible and useful to a corporate sysadmin who, previously, would have had to either maintain corporate 'allow/deny' lists, subscribed to a similar service, or closed off internet access completely.

Plus they've got a great 'do no evil' story – block the evil web-based threats!

Philipp Lenssen [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

If that blocking tool is only sold to companies who don't allow their employees any internet service at all, then the argument "some access is better than no access" has some merit for discussion (not that one would necessarily agree with it!)... but I don't believe Google only sells to those companies who have stricter blocking installed already.

By the way, I don't doubt that the information is made useful to the boss of the company – it's just that that isn't universal at all. Or do the employees also get to see which websites their boss browses?

Andy Wong [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

Viable business model to be big for an IT company is to get into the business worlds. Appealing to teens only with cool things won't make a company big, this is a key difference between Google and Facebook, though many Googlers had left for Facebook.

It is simple, if you can help businesses to become more productive, businesses will love to pay you.

AdWords was the first step, GoogleApps the second, and more.

Rob Fuller [PersonRank 1]

16 years ago #

My own employer restricts internet access using a system called Websense. This system allows unrestricted access to YouTube (the biggest timewaster I've ever known in the office), but blocks me from using Picasaweb or Google Docs. I find that a little strange.

mrbene [PersonRank 10]

16 years ago #

The expectation that a corporate environment is democratic is flawed. I'd say that expecting an employee have access to the employers browsing habits is like the employee expecting to see the details of their employers salary and benefits package.

It may happen, but it's unlikely.

I see strong parallels between the very strong state in China and the very strong executive boards and hierarchy in most successful corporations (with some notable exceptions). Hence the comparison.

The basis of publicly held corporate operation is maximizing the extraction of wealth on behalf of their shareholders. When Google went public, they entered into a legal agreement with their shareholders to do exactly that – so personally I don't accept that "Do No Evil" is their primary driving principle any longer.

Overall, my comments earlier were made with an undercurrent of humour around this opinion.

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