When did search turn into being searched?

I’m just going to come out and say it: I have a beef with the marriage of browsers and search. To be fair, I can see the convenience and appeal of having an improved search function, but I’m suspicious of non-transparent auto-upgrades and the Omnibox.  Allowing users an informed choice and preserving privacy seem to be the casualties in this thinly veiled death march toward gathering more user data.

I understand the commercial and economic catalyst.  By relegating all browser activity to a search, search vendors gain a stronger upper hand in the on-line advertising bargaining model.  And, if they can do it right, good for them.  However, when you consider the manner in which our information is obtained and the uses to which this information is put, I’m not sure we want to be pawns in the glorious conquest of the online advertising market. Consider, too, that the Omnibox (when enabled with the ‘auto-suggest’ feature and Google as the default search vendor) will admittedly have access to any keystrokes entered into the box—even if you don’t press enter.  Even worse, Google has acknowledged they will retain some of that data along with your corresponding IP address. Sure, sure, in some way, shape, or form my browsing activity will be analyzed by someone.  Maybe by the browser, the network, or the service I use.  I get that.  Still, should we be demanding an informed opt-in for these automatic browser updates and non-transparent data storage?

Stand alone, the Omnibox is the least of my worries when it comes to browsers. If it’s a voluntary download, responsible users are presumably aware of the implications of using this interaction model.  For me, the real wolf in sheep’s clothing is an auto-upgrade feature that might automatically change my header bar into a search bar.  An update might be acceptable as it implies an improvement to a program that has already been chosen by the consumer.  And maybe that is the gimmick(?) – they are all updates <snicker snicker>.  But an auto-upgrade takes the big liberty of adding new features without my consent and could degrade consumer experience.  The potential for abuse is a little too real for comfort and definitely not unheard of (as we saw with Safari). There are two options here: simply do away with the automatic upgrade feature, or give consumers an explicit and informed choice of which features they want to enable each time the browser is upgraded.  And yet, nobody seems to do this and can get away with it because they have a quick blurb about it in their terms of service.

I would like to be confident that the next time the auto-update function in Firefox kicks into gear, I am told what is going to happen to my Internet experience.  Whatever happens, I hope whatever it’s installing won’t result in my URL bar being taken over and turned into a data gathering function.  I don’t want to be searched.

.tom

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