Tuesday, April 13, 2004

How to make a political career using Google

The net has become an important place for any politician. Much has been written about Howard Dean's use of Blogs and the internet in the recent presidential primaries. California State Senator Liz Figueroa has decided to use Google to get her name out into the public space. Is she buying ads from AdWords around important issues to her constituents? Is she blogging about important issues and getting indexed by Google?
No, she is trying to get the California legislator to block the launch of Gmail over privacy concerns! With the media frenzy around Gmail, this Senator has some great quotes showing her incredible in depth knowledge of the internet space:

Senator Figueroa on the Gmail Ads generated from keywords within email:
'We think it's an absolute invasion of privacy. It's like having a massive billboard in the middle of your home,'

My reply:
- I hope she tries and stop spam filters, because they "read" my email too! Then it really will be like a massive billboard in my home.
- Small contextual ads in my web based email system = "...like having a massive billboard in the middle of your home"... GIVE ME A BREAK... has this woman ever been on the net? Has she not seen all the popup ads, video ads that launch with sound without permission, banner ads, etc.?

I am sorry about this rant, it is a little late, I didn't sleep much last night, and I am a little punch. I just hope that the people in California that this State Senator represents don't have any really important issues to be concerned about, like crime, budget deficits eating away at educational funding, etc....

No comments: