Google Chrome

[Murray Stokely]

On Tue, Sep 9, 2008 at 6:15 PM, Peter Ross
<Peter.Ross at alumni.tu-berlin.de> wrote:
> Correct me if I am wrong:
>
> Firefox only contacts Google if DNS fails. AFAIK as long as you have a
> valid URL it does not go to Google.
>
> Google Chrome sends an event every time you type into the URL/Search field
> (using Javascript) so Google can make suggestions while you are typing.
>
> So _every_ URL is sent to them.
>
> Yes, I know that you can use tor. But the most users will not do it. As
> most don't care about changing defaults at all. So if Chrome becomes
> widely used, Google harvests the browsing history of millions of users.

All search companies with toolbars already harvest the browsing
history of millions of users.  Most toolbars have a similar suggest
feature, which consumers find enormously useful, but can turn off it
they don't want to give away that information.  Your ISP also sees
your entire browsing history, but turning that off with Tor or
something is much harder.

More details about all the cases when Chrome communicates with a
Google server are enumerated in a blog post here :

   http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-chrome-communication/

         - Murray