Do No Evil, At Least For a While

Has Google dropped the ball or are they no longer interested? 

I have stopped using Google Earth for a number of reasons. One reason is that I don't appreciate being forced to have processes running in the background, phoning home to Google. The new version of Google earth requires some kind of update agent to run all the time. 

Another reason is that the resolution of the satellite images still is abysmally low for my country. There are a number of online maps services using high resolution aerial photographs that completely blow away Google's satellite images, and the maps are much better as well.

Another reason is I am starting to feel uncomfortable using Google for everything. "Do No Evil" sounds like a very good principle, but even if this principle still permeates Google operations, it is just a matter of time until this principle will be corrupted or abused. Why?

Money rules and when the unscrupulous powers behind industries like the pharmaceutical industry realizes the potential in the treasure trove of information that sits there waiting for them, they are going to make use of it in some way or another. Just think what they could do if they have access to Google Health, for instance.

When this happens, information is really going to start to leak from Google. The connections between Big Pharma and certain intelligence agencies will cause some of this information to be diverted that way.

Do I really want Googles background processes running on my computer all time in this kind of situation?

So, could the tepid interest from Google to capitalize from various parts of their technology, like Google Earth, be explained along those lines? Maybe their primary interest isn't revenues from ads anymore. Perhaps the executives at Google are set up to get their main flow of money from completely different directions these days.

The tin-foil hat is firmly glued to my head today. Sorry about that.