Making the Web 2.0 Safe

GoogleBadware

You know a post is going to be bad when it has Web 2.0 in the title and begins "I remember when...". But I'm going to do it anyway.

I remember when Google had no advertisements. The cleanest search engine there was. A time where if you asked people what their favourite search engine was, they'd probably say 'Altavista'.

Why did users move to Google from Altavista, Excite and Yahoo? Because Google was uncluttered. You weren't bombarded with advertisements and useless junk, like those annoying Google Toolbar ads and "Sponsored Links".

But Google has now gone one up. It warns you when trying to access an "unsafe" website:

GoogleBadware

Thats right kiddies, as if the Internet wasn't annoying enough, what with popup floating DIVs and advertisements flying around everywhere. Now, when you visit some websites, you have to make it through Google's intermediary page!

What's the web coming to? Should we really be protecting morons from themselves? What would Darwin have to say about this...