Google's latest move to include it's toolbar within downloads of Macromedia Shockwave leads one to ponder why all the fuss? 55.4 million machines apparently have Macromedia Shockwave on them. Although putting a huge thorn in Microsoft's side, what use are toolbars now that many internet browsers are building them in themselves? Both the latest versions of IE and Firefox already include search engines. Is this latest move by the Search Engine giants to package their toolbars with other software installations just beating a dead horse?

Call me another Conspiracy Theorist. I've disregarded all the crackpots who see the 230M page views a day who attributed Facebook's success with a right wing orwellian conspiracy to track every single college individual under the innocent veil of social networking. However, the other day when I came to work I noticed FB's newest features include a status menu that indicates your status, what you are doing and where you are doing it from. I won't bore you with all the claims of FB being funded by the CIA and etc. I just wanted to bring up this subject: With all the information on such pages as MySpace and Facebook, aren't we leaving ourselves open to a big brother even if big brother isnt necessarily funding the site? On Facebook, users list pictures, who each person in the pictures are, how users are related to them and how long they've known them. Where you've worked, what classes you've taken, mobile messages to users, private messages, your entire social network, clubs and activities, and the ability to have other people put up pictures and information about you even if you dont have an account. Sounds like the perfect recon flow chart to me eh? Now I embrace the expression I can have within my blog, the voice I have yet the anonymonity of what I write if I chose to. However, these are legit questions to scrutinize as such websites spread like wildfire.