Google Watching...

Google, the king of search world, the deity to whom we webmasters and web-users bow every day, has its fair share of haters. The awesome power that Google wields over how we use and view the web has resulted in Google-Watchers, people who watch every move that Google makes. Every time Google updates its search index (roughly every month), groups of people rise up in protest at their websites being demoted for no apparent reason. Salon has analyzed the anti-Google movement and the wolves waiting in the shadows to trample over the elephant, if someone powerful enough to do that appears on the scene. Already Yahoo! is building its armaments with its acquisition of Inktomi, while Microsoft has decided that it needs to weild power over the only part of our lives untouched by the Will of Bill.

Google of course, is on its way to immortality by becoming a metaphor for search, and also spawning a culture of its own. Google washing and Google whacking are rituals of this sublime cult of the geeks. For all we know, the thinking of an entire generation may be shaped by the algorithms created at Google. Well Google is a nice company. (But as my colleague says... "yeah, for now!")

[Check out the new Google Toolbar with it's built-in popup killer and support for Blogger]