Sunday, March 21, 2010

World of Goo on Google

This is too funny not to post. The clever and tremendously fun puzzle game World of Goo, in one of its last levels, has a hilarious jab at the search engines, personalized search, and personalized advertising.

An excerpt from the dialogue with "MOM ... [the] Automated Search Engine Companion":
What would you like to ask MOM today?

Do I smell cookies? ... Yes! I am baking your personal information into each one.

What personal information is in your cookies? ... Cookies may contain:
your location
complete search history
whipped soy product
online purchases
medical records
telephone logs
web logs
email logs
streaming video from your current location
and more!
That's MOM's special recipe for offering free, convenient, relevant information to valued users like you.

Is my personal information safe with you? ... Your personal information is stored in a secure database and will never be shared with anyone*
* Unless they ask.
** Or if someone says they are you and takes your cookies
*** Or if the venture firm finds out it's profitable.
**** Or if unhappy employees release copies of your cookies to other online databases.
***** Or if outsourced data centers sell illegal copies of your cookies to other sites.
****** Or if my parent corporation is acquired and my data including your cookies becomes part of a larger aggregate system without your knowledge or consent.

Delete my cookies ... Are you sure? ... Yes ... Your cookies have been deleted*.
* Cookies may not actually be deleted.
** Cookies may be stored indefinitely for evaluation and training purposes to better serve you.
*** MOM knows best.

Everyone loves receiving special offers from MOM and the MOM's affiliate network of adver-bots.
Video is available as well as a full transcript (search for [Conversation with MOM transcript]).

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