Terrifies me too. Mostly because cloud downtime will probably always be unpredictable, and customers will always hate downtime.

>>>>Schmidt says that Google
>>>>could never take undue advantage of its position
>>>>in the search market—not just for vague ethical reasons
>>>>but as a matter of self-interest.
>>>>Such a practice, he says, would destroy the trust
>>>>that Google has built with its users—
>>>>and ultimately Google’s entire business.

That is naive. The whole point is, “taking undue advantage” happens after you have people in a situation where they can’t leave even if they want to. There are plenty of companies that wish they did not have to keep using Microsoft Office. There are great, free alternatives now, but are corporations switching en masse? Or is everyone afraid to switch…afraid they would be sacrificing too much time and money?

>>>>”If you become dissatisfied with Google,
>>>>it’s very easy to move to a competitor.”

Not true. E.G. If I want to know whether there’s going to be a class reunion, I have to check Facebook. Its the only place the info will get posted. Previously you could rely on things like Classmates, or Alumni, etc. But Facebook has reached the point where people feel that “if so-and-so isn’t using Facebook, he’s probably dead.” You can say “its easy to switch to something else” but its a lie. Sure I could decide not to use Facebook. The result would be missing the reunion.

It doesn’t matter whether Google has a corporate philosophy that discourages exploitation. Odds are that it won’t always be that way. You can never implicitly “trust” a corporation, only individual people who have proven themselves. You still need safeguards. You still have to allow for accountability, (competition in this case).

I’m not against Google at all. But I am against applying the law differently toward one company just because it seems to have noble intentions, and “could never take undue advantage of its position.” Thats a ridiculous idea. Let them investigate. Just make sure its done fairly, without leaving any gaps that can be filled by Microsoft, who will always be watching and waiting for an opportunity to enslave us for good.

I tried Bing out for a while, ended up leaving it largely because they rigged it to where things like maps complained if you were using Opera (but worked fine if you spoofed the user agent and said it was Firefox), and they also rig the search results so you can’t use it to find torrents as easily as with other engines.

Microsoft can go suck an egg cause I tried to use Bing and it just drove me off.

You’re right when you say that it was determined by people’s free choice, and not by an economic manouvre.

In fact what Google did and does is working so well and broadening they’re offering that people choose Google again and again.

As far as google acting in an unfair manner,well thats a seperate idea.
I will say that my personalopinion is that google is not my favorite company, but that they make good products.
To demonstrate why I dislike the company,try to contact them.
Just try.