Sounds like a goo report for Opera.  But side tabs and configurable cookies are not enough to get me to switch yet.  But keep us posted on the site issues.  If they get better, it may move into the top 3 for me.

All of them do that.  The emoticon is the b ) (with no space).  I found that out the hard way as well.

It use to be innovative.  But yes, it is #1 on the hit parade for malware (probably because it still has the largest share of the market).

Yes, there are worse things on the net.  But there are none that are more pervasive and worse than google.  Most can avoid the things worse than google.  Google is almost impossible to avoid, and that is why it is bad in Starket's eyes (and mine as well - I am just not as religious as he is).

As for MSN, it has been around longer than Google mail.  So it may just be a matter of time.  Or they may have better spam filters at the gate (so you never see them in the mail box).  I am still getting about 1-2 messages a week that sneaks past their spam filter (in my in box, not my spam folder).  When I first got the account and for the longest time, I never saw a one that went into the inbox.  The spaminators are getting cleverer.

You hit the nail on the head...Google is near impossible to avoid... no matter where you go on the net it is there, watching, collecting, advertising.

As for not being as religious as me, I suggest you get your nose into the Anti-Google testament and start swatting up on how to be a good disciple..

Well I have nothing to hide. It will be some time before I give up Gmail.

Nah - I gave it up for lent.

it is not so much what you have to hide - as what can be used against you.  Most of the people suffering from identity theft probably have nothing to hide.  But no site, especially one as large as Google - is impervious to hackers.  Even if Google was the second coming of Jesus Christ/Buddha and Solomon rolled into one, there are still those that can take the information and use it against you. 

There is no banking information, credit card information, or Social Security information stored within my Gmail account. How would they steal my identity?

Do you bank on line?  Google can track that.  Do you purchase on line?  Google can track that.  On a genealogy web site?  Guess who is indexing those sites (I found a treasure trove of my family information on a site called Family Tree - indexed at google!  In other words, I Googled it). What about Google Earth?  Like that picture of your house?  So do thieves.

These are the things that Starkers hates, and I fear.  getting that information is the major battle.  The rest is just social engineering.

Yeah but Bing does the same things. Why just target Google?

Not trying to make this a bug thread but since I was just praising Opera's cookie management I now feel obligated to throw this out here:

"Quirk"- Opera's "Delete all cookies upon exit" (with or without specific site exceptions) seems to be reliable only if you use the Menu/Exit command to exit the browser.  Using the upper right corner standard Windows "Close" button seems to have an annoying tendency to leave the cookies in place (but not all the time).  Again that's "on my machine" which is XP.  I'll be using the Menu/Exit, thank you.

That's very interesting DaveRI. I'll have to see if the same thing occurs on Win 7. If it does then maybe those who use it will see this also and take note. Like me. Thanks for the heads up.

I have two questions. One: What is Opera turbo? and Two: Does anyone use it? Oh and #3 ...  Do I want to use it?

This is their Help page on it http://help.opera.com/Windows/11.01/en/turbo.html

Short answer - proxy server with server-side webpage compression to speed things up

I tried it briefly and it didn't suit me at all.  Looked like it was stripping out a lot of formatting, seriously degraded my "web viewing pleasure" .  Might be useful to someone more interested in pure text.  It's easy enough to turn on and off, give it a whirl on some of your favorite sites and see what you think. 

Very informative. I'd use the auto setting when I'm at the dayroom, not here where the speed isn't compromised. Thanks for the link.

when I try to quote here with Opera 11.01 (or copy/paste), it crashes. Any ideas?

I'm looking to see if I can replicate that. Well ... couldn't do it and I don't think copy/paste works within the forums, from one post to another. Sorry. I'm trying to see if I can duplicate some of the problems I'm reading in this thread using FF4, Opera and Palemoon. So far its a no go.

However, I've discovered that I can't copy/paste with Opera 11.01 either. Bet others will experience the same.

Yes Opera crashes on me when quoting here too.  (You'll forgive me for not quoting   .)

Tell ya wot, Dr G, you know how to put words into my mouth very well.... these are exactly the things I hate about Google, their pervasive, invasive and incessant drive for information that can be turned around to harm people in varieties of ways.   People should never think for a millisecond that they have personal/private information anywhere on the net.... not since the advent of Google and its insatiable desire to know everything about everybody. 

And just because you do a Google Search on yourself and it does not reveal any dirty laundry about you, kona, that doesn't mean to say they do not possess it.  Their discretionary publishing powers may conceal it for the time being, but hey, start mouthing off against Google like I do and suddenly you might find information about yourself published online you'd rather the public didn't see.... like the time you had a dose of the crabs or unsightly puss oozing from your dangly bits.  Okay, maybe those things do not appear in your medical file, but more and more doctors surgeries/clinics are storing patient files online these days... and if they're online, you can bet your lefty that Google has a way of accessing them.

Um, does Bing really do the same things... as in go to any extreme to collect data about everything and everyone regardless of the consequences? I believe not. The only similarity is they're both search engines, and it pretty much ends there.  However, if they thought that they could get away with it, I do believe Google would stoop so low as to send a microscopic camera up your back passage to see what you had for dinner... then to try to determine if you've partaken of any illegal substances recently... for future reference, if you know what I mean.... cops, CIA, NSA, FBI, etc. 

Exactly, kona, I believe Google does do evil and that it has little or NO compunction in doing so... with a great emphasis on the NO part.

Right Starkers. Whatever. You probably also believe Microsoft isn't a monopoly either right?

Actually, Microsoft isn't a monopoly.  It has competitors in Apple/Mac; Linux distributions; IBM; Amiga; Aegis; Lynx, and even Google, plus other minor players, and that's just in the Operating System Arena.

In the Office arena there is Open Office; Ashampoo Office; AbiWord; Corel Office; Adobe Office Apps SoftMaker office apps and others.

So no, Microsoft is not a monopoly.  It may have the largest market share in OS and Office software, but it is certainly not alone in the market, which is what it would have to be to be a true monopoly.

Amiga  *sigh* :'( ... Long live AROS 

Microsoft IS a monopoly. They are in and out of court for such practices as buying out competing companies so as to crush competition. They give deep discounts to those PC manufacturers who choose to have Windows installed instead of Linux. The list goes on. MS is just as bad as Google.

I use ClickaBoomBoom ! Perfect Browser...

Got a link? Maybe clickaboomboom is what all of us need to defeat the evil googleheads. Either that or form a search engine/mono-poly of our own so's we can gather all the dirty stuff on google and microstuff and bing and sell it to the lowest bidder. We should be able to make a few pennies I think.  

That may be so... or may have been so, but still a monopoly it does not make.  Apple and IBM are companies that MS probably could not buy out, either to nurture or destroy... and then there's Ubuntu and other Linux distributions.  Therefore. Microsoft has competitors who are not going away any time soon, thus it is an industry leader among others, not a monopoly with 100% market share.

Thankfully, no!  MS may have been somewhat predatory in its bid to become number one software distributor, but that was quite out in the open and various court decisions have since leveled that playing field.  However, Google is playing a different field and is not so transparent with regard to its agendas or goals.  Moreover, Google has violated laws in many states and/or countries and has gotten away with it so far because they offer apologies and 'viable' excuses to dissuade prosecution from various authorities... "Oh, sorry, we were just conducting research into unsecured wi-fi connections to raise public awareness." 

Yeah, right.  Truth is, Google was eavesdropping. 

What if the "eavesdropping" prevented things like a terrorist attack or a senseless murder?