27 December 2007
A recent change to Google Reader has sparked controversy among some of its users.
Announced on December 14th, the alteration takes blog posts or articles that users have marked for sharing and makes them available to each person that the user has listed as a contact or friend on Google Talk.
In a company blog, Google's Chrix Finne stated: "We've linked up Reader with Google Talk (also known as chat in Gmail) to make your shared items visible to your friends from Google Talk."
This was done in order to make the process of sharing articles and blogs more convenient as it removes the need to distribute shared items links to friends, he added.
However, the move was greeted with anger by a number or users, with one - named Modulo Noh - commenting: "This is the worst feature [Google has] ever introduced," Mercury News reports.
Meanwhile, another person, called Banzaimonkey, added that the people on his contact list are not necessarily his friends, stating: "This is a major privacy concern."
In response to the complaints, a Google employee assured users that the search engine provider was listening to their concerns.
Indeed, while on his Christmas holidays, a spokesman for the firm emailed Mercury News a statement that the update had been built with "user choice" and "transparency" in mind.
According to founder of the Privacy Forum Lauren Weinstein, the new feature does not in fact cause major privacy concerns. However, he added that Google had mishandled the way in which it was rolled out to users.
Alterations to Google Reader cause controversy
A recent change to Google Reader has sparked controversy among some of its users.Announced on December 14th, the alteration takes blog posts or articles that users have marked for sharing and makes them available to each person that the user has listed as a contact or friend on Google Talk.
In a company blog, Google's Chrix Finne stated: "We've linked up Reader with Google Talk (also known as chat in Gmail) to make your shared items visible to your friends from Google Talk."
This was done in order to make the process of sharing articles and blogs more convenient as it removes the need to distribute shared items links to friends, he added.
However, the move was greeted with anger by a number or users, with one - named Modulo Noh - commenting: "This is the worst feature [Google has] ever introduced," Mercury News reports.
Meanwhile, another person, called Banzaimonkey, added that the people on his contact list are not necessarily his friends, stating: "This is a major privacy concern."
In response to the complaints, a Google employee assured users that the search engine provider was listening to their concerns.
Indeed, while on his Christmas holidays, a spokesman for the firm emailed Mercury News a statement that the update had been built with "user choice" and "transparency" in mind.
According to founder of the Privacy Forum Lauren Weinstein, the new feature does not in fact cause major privacy concerns. However, he added that Google had mishandled the way in which it was rolled out to users.
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