Looking for drivers for an iron. I came across Iron which is Chrome browser modified to remove all the report back information that Google collects. Its based on the open source code for Chrome. Haven't tried installing it myself. But damn, Google collects a lot of information.

Comparison:
http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron_chrome_vs_iron.php

Downloads: XP,Vista,etc, Linux, OSX, source.
http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron_download.php

Is it a surprise, though? I mean, they're huge, they're an absolute juggernaut of a marketing company and they employ a lot of people to create innovative things, a lot of it's on their findings.

I don't think all the info collecting is for marketing purposes, a lot of that info is used to make the searches better as well. I still remember trying to search for things before Google really took off- results were really bad sometimes and it was like playing the lottery.

They've always been pretty upfront about what they do imho, I'm sure it's in the "agree" statement of any Chrome installation.

I'm looking to switch my gmail account and blogger site away from google. It's basically part of TIA so I really have to laugh when I see companies using it to do mission critical work.