A Look Back at Google in 2010

By Chelsi Nakano (@chelkano) Dec 30, 2010

Google brought the fire this year with weighty moves aimed at expanding its kingdom into the social media and enterprise realm. Consequently, the Internet giant also took a lot of heat for exposing too much data and kicking out products that nobody really liked. You win some, you lose some, right? Here's a look back at the highlights.

1. We’ve Been Hacked!

Google started the year with the highly-publicized decision to stop censoring Google.cn halfway through January. The choice was made when Google discovered “a highly sophisticated and targeted attack” on their corporate infrastructure originating from China that lead to the hijacking of source code.

The attack reportedly targeted at least 20 other companies from a wide range of businesses. Google believed the primary goal was to access the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, though only a small number of accounts were broken into and the information obtained was minimal.

Fully aware that the discontinuation of censored results on Google.cn would likely mean the end of China-based Google operations all together, the Internet giant lifted its self-censoring mechanisms in March. China subsequently banned Google.cn, causing a high-profile PR battle and setting the stage for a year of privacy concerns from every corner of the digital world.

2. Mounting Privacy and Security Concerns

Understandably, a number of Googlers were upset to see the mother ship of personal information get hacked. "They have an awful lot of data," warned independent computer security researcher, Moxie Marlinspike, of Google’s data harvesting practices. "They record everything. They have your IP address, your search requests, the contents of every e-mail you’ve ever sent or received…They even know what you are thinking about.”

Too add insult to injury, Google’s first real foray into the social realm — Google Buzz — unintentionally revealed private information, like a user’s contacts and e-mail addresses. Google apologized profusely and reformed Buzz settings, but still faced a virtual walk of shame.

The company is currently under investigated by the European Union for being accused of deliberately demoting search results for competing services, as well as copying household computer passwords and e-mails from unsecured wireless networks when photographing neighborhoods for Maps.

3. Opting Out

Choice and transparency were obviously huge this year, so Google tried to play nice by releasing an opt-out tool for Google Analytics.

The browser plugin essentially tells Google Analytics Javascript (ga.js) not to collect user data such as IP information. However, it does not block Google's DoubleClick advertising cookie, nor does it prevent IP information or search queries from being directly logged by the sites you visit, or the practices of other Web analytics tools, leading many to wonder: what's the point?