I love Google. This emotion is truly based on the principles they communicate. I also believe that they do not want to be evil. They do not want to cause trouble and they try to uphold to the strongest moral ideas mankind has developed under pain so far. They are a swarm of honest and most of all honorable people.

I truly believe that they try to make this communication utility (which we call Internet) a better place.

The problem is hidden in the concept, not the company:

As long as the "world's information" (which needs to be organized) consists of memes of different value to different people and as long as companies evolve around these memes, we have a problem:

a) the Internet is not a mirror of real life. We are a subset. We are countable, measurable and traceable (read: privacy).

b) Information is not equal. Some information involves much more work than the next: articles from the 1939s San Francisco Chronicle is a different information in relation to the article of a highly skilled SEO from yesterday: it might has a price and it might needs a reseller network to publish it 100 times to float around (read: duplicate content and censorship).

c) International business rules and common sense demand a predictable business behavior. Contracts are not changed in the blink of an eye. If you change your prices, you notify your partners with a little grace period upfront (read: smartpriced).

d) Non-disclosure of activities: if you are involved in the daily processes of your business partner you do not turn around and establish the same business within a few weeks, because you see what is running very good and what errors he might performs (read: search term analytics and spawning new sites/services).

In the last months I have been sitting here and thinking about Google a lot. I still love them and I am convinced they are the most evil enemy we have seen on the web so far. They are paying a big chunk of my multi-hundred thousand dollar business per year. They bring the visitors and they send the check, but: hey - I am not evil, just telling my thoughts, am I?

While we see a consolidation of information flowing into that uncontrollable beast (which lures us into its cave) we forget to protest and fight back.

We have an uncle with good intentions and bad outcomes and most of us still feel cozy. Google is on the way to become something we do not want and I do hope there are some people who understand a German with limited English capabilities!

P!