This certainly seems to be the topic du jour so I’ll join the fray.  Lots of discussion going on about privacy and search engines.  Appears that Ask.com led the pivot strategy away from Google and took the high ground on maintaining user privacy around what you search for with Microsoft and Yahoo following suit.  Good discussion on this from Jeff Nolan as well as coverage on TechCrunch.  Here’s Google’s most recent discussion around privacy.

Over the weekend, I took a look at my search history via Google’s "Web History" that populates when I am logged into Google.  It was pretty fascinating as it strung together where I had been (maps & directions), what I had been looking for, what I had been talking about, who I had talked to, and more than a few random queries tied to various thoughts and discussions I had been having.  Nothing over the top, but a lot of details that struck me when I saw them neatly laid out in chronological order.   So rather than having my Outlook calendar and e-mail tell me this story (where I control this information), Google told me (where I don’t control it).