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No Free Lunch from Google

Recently I've had trouble in the New Post editing window when user blogger (blogspot). It didn't show the editing icons (font, bold, italics, etc.), which made it harder to post of course. An associated blog (Wandrin.blogspot.com) got me started with the Help capability of blogger. Normally I give up on such things before giving them a fair chance.

The solution didn't come from tech thinking; it came from "cui bono" paranoia: I've always been afraid that if internet users get hooked on freebies from Google, they would sabotage adblocking capabilities, since ads are how Google rakes in obscene profits. (I use the Firefox browser with AdBlock Plus.)

Paranoia is useful sometimes: I guessed that I should turn off AdBlock Plus on the page in question, which is one of the options on the pull-down menu of AdBlock Plus. Sure enough, the editing icons showed up again: problem solved.

Shame on me for expecting a free blogging service, free Picasa photo-editing, and free Picasa web albums that integrate with everything else. Oh yea, and free Google maps and who knows what else. And then I reward them with suspicion. Recall that scene in The Godfather when Don Corleone convened the other families to call a truce, after Sonny got assassinated. His rival said, "Of course Don Corleone is entitled to make a fair profit for these services [legal protection, etc.]. After all, we are not Communists." The gangsters all sniggered.

Neither am I. I wouldn't even complain if simple, non-flashing, non-lewd, print ads showed up in the margin of my blog. But when ads become obtrusive like in television or they flash at you on the internet, it's war. God help us if Google ever sucks us into using their Chrome browser.

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