Google overlords anaylzing your soul

[Dark Jaguar]

http://technology.guardian.co.uk/news/st...61,00.html

I guess... What possible information can they get on our psychological state based on the games we make? Feel free to invent all sorts of hypothesees and then sell a book based on the unproven system, but in reality this seems about as evidence based as the great majority of all "psychological profile questionairs" they provide online. I'd be afraid if I thought this was a competent assessment.

But really the question I have is how the heck would they do this "covert monitering"? I myself don't even have the google toolbar, nor do I want it, as it's a memory waste that I'd never use anyway, so it wouldn't be through that. Other than that, how's it going to, for example, watch me play Counter-Strike or whatever online game? Unless it makes deals for all these companies to intentionally shunt the online network's bandwidth through Google's servers (which, among other things, could easily cause noticable lag, and would very much be rallied against by the user base), I don't see that happening.

[Great Rumbler]

Details such as whether a person is more likely to be aggressive, hostile or dishonest could be obtained and stored for future use, it says.

Uhh...I play like that in games sometimes, but that doesn't mean I'd do it in real life...

And what exactly is this information going to do to help advertisers?

[Dark Jaguar]

In the backwards world of advertisers, they all think they are psychologists with a perfect system. They think they actually know what they are talking about and don't seem to realize their jokes about interns on the phone demean us all.

If they find out we camp, they will sell us camping equipment. That's how their brains work.

<img src="http://learnleetspeak.com/leet/leet.jpg">

[Trogdor]

Hah, I'm not worried. An intelligent, clever person can gain insights into human behavior anywhere where there are humans doing anything. The subtleties and nuances that google is going to glean from game selection and play style aren't any more shocking or hidden than the other subtleties and nuances about human nature that google executives are going to learn interacting with the general public at starbucks on their lunch break.

[Dark Jaguar]

Except that's all bunk.