Ted Gioia – Or why tech upgrades are now mostly downgrades: “…Here are the things missing from the original search engines.

1. They didn’t practice 24/7 surveillance of users.
2. They didn’t sell user’s private information.
3. They didn’t fill up search results with garbage in order to collect placement fees.
4. They didn’t manipulate users—prodding them to use ancillary services.
5. They didn’t make it difficult (or sometimes impossible) to remove the search engine from your computer.
6. They didn’t force you to log in and create a profile—so that they could have more private info to sell to third parties.
7. They didn’t put ‘cookies’ on your computer so that your online movements could be more easily monetized.
8. They didn’t work with authoritarian regimes and government censors so that political agendas could be embedded into your search results.
9. They didn’t lobby Congress to weaken copyright protections, block antitrust prosecution, avoid transparency, and disempower users.
10. They didn’t kiss the asses of foreign dictators in order to maintain overseas distribution.
11. They didn’t even sell ads…”