The Times reported yesterday that Google has "quietly" placed a counter on the search pages of frequent users, to see how often users really search. Marissa Mayer, Google director of consumer products, says the counter is "just something fun," right now. "I like to see my numbers go up. I feel like I'm getting smarter when the number goes up because I've learned." However, some worry that Google's reach and ability to log where people are searching may be a privacy violation. The Electronic Privacy Information Center wonders if users know Google is looking at their data and asks "why they are logging this?"

Our own low estimate is that we use Google at least 200 times a day. People, places, facts about raising tigers in our home...