Google Updater: Bugs but Benign

April 13, 2009

I loved this statement in Google Operating System: Unofficial News and Tips about Google here, “Unfortunately, the service has many bugs, it can’t be disabled unless you uninstall all the applications that use it and there are some privacy issues…” Who wrote this? The Google. You can read “Google Update, Open Sourced” here. To make clear the intent of the Google Update service, Google has released the code to the public domain. (I doubled checked and this does not seem to be a tardy April Fool.) The other interesting statement in the article was:

Since Google Update is always running on your system, there’s no simple way to stop it, and since it’s a fundamental part of the Google software that needs it, it’s not explicitly installed.

A question: do you think this sounds somewhat similar to Microsoft’s protestations that Internet Explorer could not be disable or removed from Windows, a fact which may have been subject to revisionism in Windows 7? Google has some clever engineers. It’s a pity that this installer is such a baffler. The comments to the post go in a surprising direction; namely, legal issues. Post any additional info you may have, please. I will update this item but not automatically as I learn more. I love categoricals. Just like mom in a way.

Stephen Arnold, April 13, 2009

Written by Stephen E. Arnold · Filed Under Google, News, Security, Technology

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Stephen E. Arnold monitors search, content processing, text mining and related topics from his high-tech nerve center in rural Kentucky. He tries to winnow the goose feathers from the giblets. He works with colleagues worldwide to make this Web log useful to those who want to go "beyond search". Contact him at sa [at] arnoldit.com. His Web site with additional information about search is arnoldit.com.