I personally find this news very disturbing, and I question why this was
even something that should have happened. eCommerce is becoming so
pervasive that it has moved me to remove myself from more and more internet
sites.

I enjoy eBird and spend a lot of time studying all that it has to offer,
now I will be sensitive to even using it going forward. This is citizen
science, not a data generator to be utilized to make money and that is the
only reason that a "Google" would want to buy it! Will it follow that we
will have to purchase a subscription to eBird, endure flashing ads trying
to sell us everything that a "birder" would possible be convinced they
need. Google will now have our names, and email addresses so here comes
the email bombs!

A very sad day IMO

BillB

On Wed, Apr 1, 2015 at 4:04 AM, Matt Bartels <mattxyz at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Surprised and a little apprehensive about the news that Google acquired
> eBird today.
>
> On the one hand, I bet we?ll see all sorts of cool new improvements ? the
> user experience side of eBird is about to get a big boost. (GoogleAnalytics
> aside, if google can turn its maps into Pac Man
> <http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/31/google-maps-turned-your-streets-into-pac-man-today/> games,
> think what they can do with bird lists!).
>
> But on the other hand?. Google being able to essentially track exactly
> where every eBirder is travelling [in *real* time for bird-log users] and
> who they are travelling with is a bit creepy. And Google has purchased and
> ?retired? so many companies in the past that there?s an online graveyard
> for them [http://tinyurl.com/cdc3h3b] ? what will happen if birders
> suddenly lose all their data on eBird??
>
> From the news report on TechCrunch:
> *?Mixed Reaction from Birders on news of Google Acquisition of eBird?
> [link <http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/08/google-odysee/>]*
> *It looks like Cornell Labs is the latest company to earn a paycheck from
> Google ? word leaked via various bird enthusiast email lists today that
> Google has acquired eBird ? a hugely popular product largely unknown,
> outside the world of obsessive bird watchers. ?eBird?, an online database
> of bird observation powered by the data input of over 100,000 users has
> grown rapidly in the past five years ? enough to draw the interest (and
> investment) of Google. Google?s interest is presumably less the birds and
> citizen science than the data provided on the movements of so many affluent
> users. A note on eBird's main page gushed about the 'synergies' of the
> buy-out, the 'potential to better predict and serve the needs of its
> customers, not just the birds' and the belief that integration with future
> editions of GoogleGlass may revolutionize the way birds are observed and
> reported. Google confirmed the acquisition but nothing more. ?I can confirm
> the news and that they?re joining the Google+ team. We aren?t sharing more
> beyond that at this point,? a spokesperson wrote in an email.*
>
> We'll see how this plays out , I guess, as the eCommerce side of Big Data
> comes to our neighborhood....
>
> Matt Bartels
> Seattle, WA
>
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