According to the 06/15/2006 edition of Windows Secrets Microsoft's Genuine Adfvantage is spyware. I agree with him to a limited extent. And I find I'm getting more and more uneasy (less and less easy?) about dealing with Microsoft. I've got a spare laptop ... maybe it's time to install a good Linux distro on it.
Google Labs has come up with another cool idea -- browser sync. What is it? In their words:
"By default, Google Browser Sync continuously synchronizes your bookmarks, history, persistent cookies, tabs, windows, and saved passwords across computers."
You can get it from this page and discuss it in the Google-Firefox-Extensions group.
Your information is stored on their servers and, yes, they will encrypt your data with a "PIN" or password that you specify. You need to have a Google account but the PIN doesn't have to match your Google password and, in fact, you can set up a new account just for this if you're feeling paranoid (yeah, some folks have the feeling that Google is the next Microsoft when it comes to privacy). You have some flexibility about what data is synched but note that to sync you must be connected to the net. That's not a problem for most people but folks on dial-up probably don't want to participate.
No, I haven't tried it yet because ... well, I'm just not ready yet. I don't use the Google toolbar (in fact, I don't use any toolbars) but I do use a lot of other Firefox extensions. I guess I just have to get used to the idea first. And I'll let you know when I adopt it.