When Does Google Become Evil?
For a long time, people have thought of Google as a sort of wildy successful lemonade stand. Two young fellows and their friends giving away a white page with a little rectangle to type in what you're looking for. They actually claimed to do no evil. Well, Google is big enough to hate now, I guess; and between their loopy explanations of why they archive all sorts of information about what you're searching for on the internet, and simply the size of their market share, they're starting to have to deal with the scrutiny that comes with being the big dog.
...Google's acquisition of DoubleClick could help it dominate the
rapidly growing market for Internet advertising, combining Google's
leadership in search-related ads with DoubleClick's strength in display
ads.
They also warn that the vast amount of data about people's behavior on the Internet held by the combined company could threaten privacy.
Google said it is "confident that this acquisition poses no risk to competition and respects consumer privacy."
But Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, one of several consumer groups that asked the Federal Trade Commission to review the acquisition, said it would eliminate meaningful competition, and not only because the new entity would control so much of the market.
I'ts not that Google might not be able to anwer their critics and skeptics. Perhaps they really do "do no evil." But they're now in the unfamiliar position that such questions will be asked every day about everything they do; at least until the next big thing comes along and Google can hand the evil baton to them.
