Confession time – in advance of getting a bit shirty. When deciding to launch out into Planet Blog the plan was to use Google’s Blogger template system. And it was only when I was a long way down the road – style and widgets chosen, all the basic profile content filled in – that I took a deep intake of breath.
There, alongside the invitation to reveal my date of birth was a tick box and the offer to ‘Include your star sign’.
Here was Google going a whole step further than leaving people to say whatever they like about their personal belief system in their Facebook profile. Now there was a ‘being led by the nose moment’ where the whole Google enterprise is effectively endorsing a worldview in which the accident of our birthdate controls our destiny.
This is not the place to bang on about the sheer tosh of astrology – even though some of my best friends have star signs. But enough to say it took no more than a moment to decide I’d rather not shimmy up to the blogging world in that kind of company. Though I still wonder if it would have been possible to link with the twenty million Leo people one morning with a blanket ‘Did the surprise gift Gypsy Doodah in the Chronicle promised come through for you today?’
So here I am using the WordPress template system. Which, I’m glad to say, is actually a whole lot better than the star-struck alternative. But then maybe Google would expect this to be my opinion – in view of my star sign.
Posted by meadowsesq 
