Earlier today, we sent out a major press release for G-Zapper 2.0, which caught the attention of Brady Forrest, writing for O'Reilly's Radar. The post was titled Using Fear of Google to Sell Software.

I would like to thank Brady for taking the time to consider G-Zapper. It's always much appreciated. However, I wanted to clarify a few points he raised and answer the question posed at the end of his article.

Brady mentioned he prefers allowing the Google cookie to remain on his PC, for usage with Google's services. This is certainly a valid point, and by all means, users who heavily rely on Google services may wish to leave the cookie intact for long periods of time. However, he acknowledges the privacy issues around the Google cookie by keeping his own cookie-cleaning bookmarklet handy. While this is an excellent idea for advanced tech users, the non-tech-savvy audience, in most cases, wouldn't know how to find, or even install such an item.

It's our hope and experience that users find G-Zapper to be an easy and effective solution for cleaning their Google cookie.

Brady also addresses our press release using the example of AOL's accidental release of 20 million search terms in 2006. While this may raise the fear bar, the fact is, it happened, it could happen again, and it could happen to any search engine which ties users' searches to a single key, such as a cookie. It's a provocative paragraph in the press release, but one we feel is important for users to be aware of.

Brady finishes the article with a final question for us here at ksoft: "Does ksoft think that the average, not-particularly-tech-savvy consumer has that much fear of Google?"

We can safely answer, yes. Last August, G-Zapper received over 10,000 downloads in a single day, breaking a record for us here at ksoft. Just as Brady's article admits to the privacy issues surrounding the Google cookie, the non-tech-savvy consumer is also becoming increasingly aware. Ignorance is certainly bliss, but as search engine privacy articles continue emerging, more and more users are learning what's at stake.

We're really not out to scare anyone. We're just here to offer a solution. If you're looking for a way to learn more about your Google cookie and for a way to clean it, then check out G-Zapper. Feel free to compare it with the many methods of cleaning the cookie and decide which one you like the best. Choices are a beautiful thing.