There is a lot of talk about Google and privacy. The new privacy policy which has taken some 60 different policies and put them into one policy that addresses privacy across Google’s ever expanding universe of products and service. In this attempt to simplify things Google has created the usual turmoil that accompanies any discussion of online privacy.

To their credit they have also created a fair amount of material about this matter that is available to everyone who wants to examine it. In their announcement of making their “universal” privacy policy live yesterday there were a few links to places to manage privacy to some degree or another. That list led to more so here is gathering of these links for you to consider.

Google’s new privacy policy and older versions
Google advertising privacy FAQ
Google’s privacy principles
Turn off Google search history
Clear YouTube search history
Set ad preferences
Move data in and out of Google through their Data Liberation site
To search incognito in the Chrome browser
A comprehensive list of Google privacy tools
Videos about privacy
Overall privacy FAQ

Sometimes it’s fun to just see Google make a search change like the good old days and just leave it at that.

Yesterday Google rolled out an improved feature in image search that pertains to related searches. Instead of getting a whole new screen you can simply preview another search term’s images by mousing over the term. Pretty cool.

Oh and by the way, I am using a Madison Square Garden image search as my example not because of “Lin-sanity” but because this is where I met my amazing wife quite some time ago and she is celebrating her birthday today. (Happy birthday, Hope! I love you!).

I like this feature a lot. Heck, anytime you don’t have to completely leave a page to get more data it’s a good thing.

Did you know that Google is still a search engine? Despite what you might think from their advertisements and the coverage the press gives (guilty as charged) you might forget that Google is still more about search than it is about anything else.

An addition to how the search engine leader handles health related searches reminds us that search is still an important part of this whole online game. It is even more vital as it relates to health issues since people would like to have at least the perception of anonymity rather than blurting out on Facebook “I’ve got this terrible rash right there ….”

Here is a sample which was used at the Inside Search Blog

Each month we do the “Who made progress in search market share” dance. Based on your responses to past posts this dance is getting pretty old. Why? It’s because there never is any real news. It actually plays out Einstein’s definition of insanity which is “doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results”. This is getting pretty much insane at this point.

To sum it up, the search market share picture month in and month out plays like this. Google might fluctuate a point of two but it’s usually more like fractions of a point like this month. Meanwhile, the Internet press tries to make a story out of share between Bing and Yahoo. Here are the latest comScore results for January 2012 to examine.

While the Internet cynics are looking at the Google Screenwise project as something curious in light of recent Google moves, I find the general idea a bit refreshing and something that has been sorely missing from the equation for a very long time.

The page at Google which describes this service offering says the following

Google is building a new panel to learn more about how everyday people use the Internet.

The new project is called Screenwise. As a panelist, you’ll add a browser extension that will share with Google the sites you visit and how you use them. What we learn from you, and others like you, will help us improve Google products and services and make a better online experience for everyone.