I hate captchas, but they are often needed if you want to download stuff from file hosts or register for stuff online.

I have noticed that I need to enable google and google-apis in noscript to be able to use captchas in most places.

So, I'm wondering, what if google is watching ? (silly question, of course they are) But, I find this disturbing. I mean, google is becoming omnipresent. You can hardly go anywhere on the net without having to enable google javascript. I'm keeping it off, because I hate Google, and maybe I just stop using captchas, because I hate them too.

What do you think, is this a threat ? Is Google becoming the M$ of the internet ? Yes, I think.

You know, the way some things are and the way they're going I'll have to agree with you.

Chrome OS sure will be something new but the more you look at it the more you realize it's about control, and I saw some presentations of it too.

Funny thing is, just few moments ago I've opened Firefox preferences to set something and since my Firefox is not accepting cookies but only from few sites that I've set to "Allow", I wonder how the fsck did Google's cookie showed up among few other cookies which were accepted in this session, when Google is set to "Block"? Hmmm

Yes -- Google are becoming omnipresent in their drive to acquire information. In the information age we are entering (have entered?) information is power, more than money and more than political sway. And they are very good at it, giving us ever more great (mostly) free tools, seducing us with convenience. When any organisation acquires a dominant hold on the levers of power serious abuse becomes possible.

I'm with you, H_TeXMeX_H; I'm worried by Google and try to minimise the amount of personal information I give them (but still use their search engine ).

Google didn't used to be this way, it used to be cool, but they suddenly turned very evil. Maybe it was their plan all along, gain users, gain trust, betray !

To me this is not necessarily a bad thing. That doesnt mean I allow or want all my information in the hands of google, but as the net keeps growing it becomes a choice of two evils, do I want an open source friendly company making money from my information or some MS type institution making money from it? Am I scared that google is so big on the net? like most people yeah! But they have a better track record than most other big companies, when is the last time MS,Oracle,HP or even IBM bought a proprietary based company and open sourced it's technology, if somebody knows please tell me because I haven't heard of it.
Still at the end of the day Google has to be profitable to keep going and to keep fighting off other sharks out there who would like to see them go down. So if that means they are king of data online that actually makes me happy because there are far worse choices out there

I don't like the way Google collects data but what do you want to do? There are other sites out there that do the same, for example Facebook. I blocked it through my router and it is impressive how many websites won't load because of this. I had to block it through AdBlockPlus so it does not even try to load code from Facebook.
With Google is a problem: I cannot block it, because there is no similar websearch out there. Probably every web search saves your data so it is not important whether I use Google, Yahoo or Bing.

Google may be omnipresent in their thirst for information, but not in restricting the user. Why do you thing Android and Chrome OS are both open source and Linux-based?

I hate captchas because sometimes they are just too bloody difficult to decipher. I can understand wanting to stop spambots, but when I deal with captchas it takes me a few tries and typically it is not 'third time's a try', more like 7-9 times a try.

Hahaha, I though I was the only one! I have trouble with those darn things nearly every time I have to deal with one. In fact, most of the time I used to play the audio instead (but now my speakers broken so I can't).

Sometimes they have simple math problems, which is great, that wouldn't be a problem at all, I mean this even helps improve my math skills. Maybe it's not as efficient as captcha (I doubt it), but I would much prefer it.

Another solution is:
http://www.artsoft.org/phpbb_ka/

Their "thirst for info" is unhealthy. I want my privacy and I want it now ! Google has clearly shown that they don't care at all about privacy and will violate it when they please, and maybe egg your house as well.

As for their support for open source: Two rights don't right a wrong.

I have not found it necessary to enable google in order to fill out captchas. Usually enabling the site you are visiting does it. I have google-analytics listed as untrusted in noscript, so I'm never even prompted to enable it.

I also use the google sharing plugin for firefox, which helps. And scroogle helps too.

I have an android phone, and a product I sometimes advertise using google, so sometimes I can't avoid using google. But I certainly can and do greatly minimize it.

Would you like one of these things?

Funny