Google buys Blogger

Okay – we have to feel good for Evan, who has worked long and hard to make Blogger a reality. Now, he’ll finally get paid.

But, to me, it’s a little unsettling that Blogger is now a Google venture. Especially since Google is so proud of their ability to feed search requests to the FBI and other authorities looking to identify dissidents and protesters – I mean, potential terrorist sympathizers.

True enough, everything one does on Blogger is basically for publication, anyway. I mean, we don’t keep Blogs secret. But people adding to the comments fields can no longer presume anonymity, now, either. The IP addresses from which comments are posted can be logged quite easily.

No, Blogger is not the only company allowing for the easy creation of weblogs, and if our ability to post is curtailed by intentional censorship (Google might not want “illegal” information or “treasonous” ideas being posted through their servers) or privacy invation, we can turn elsewhere.

I simply hadn’t considered that this need might soon arise.