is Google getting evil already?

Google is awesome. i can’t believe some people are saying the IPO failed—the company is valued on a par with Ford or General Motors after just a few years in operation. definitely a failure then. I am with experts like Sam Hayes, professor emeritus of investment banking at Harvard Business School, who says: “It threatens the large profits Wall Street has made over generations, IPOs by Dutch auction “will gradually supplant the traditional IPO.”

I think that Wall Street just saw the future – and its a future of smaller margins and more auctions. The quiet period fugazi just served to point out how asymmetrical the information available is between retail investors and investment bankers. How can we invest in something if we can’t get answers to our questions about it? The Street is in smear mode now. Those pesky Google twins!

Also – the real value of Google goes way beyond current estimates of future earnings. Think how much companies pay for marketing information–what people like? what are people going to buy in future? which stars are influencing fashion the most? what is the next Livestrong bracelet? where is the buzz about an independent movie? B2C companies pay tons of money to firms that estimate this stuff, whereas google actually measures it. Market research companies look out!

Google’s zeigiest really does capture the spirit of the age in real time. and the company hasn’t even worked out a model for collating and charging for the kind of queries a Coke or a Sony wants to know.

But if this is the future then it really matters whether google is evil or not. Information is power, and frankly Google makes people like John Pointdexter look like the overarching amateurs they are. Total Information Awareness indeed… lets go arrest Mr Kennedy. But what happens when the Republicans realize just how powerful google is and start making demands?

My point is that Google is super powerful already and has the potential of multiple new revenue streams to really hike up the cash generation. So what about signs of EVIL?

Today i came across some evil. We use Moveable Type as a blogging platform and its awesome. flexible and powerful. I don’t use Blogger and have no plans to. I should point out, for those of you that hadn’t realised Google recently acquired Blogger. So imagine my surprise today when i tried to post a comment to a Blogger users blog. Guess what – i couldnt post unless i was a blogger user myself. So google is already trying to put up walls? To insist that you use its tools? how is that different from a Microsoft style API-lock?

I havent fully worked out the implications, and i only noticed this one site today. i plan to look into the issue. but if i am right then google is already beginning to act “evil’. that is something which should potentially worry us all. How do we reverse out of google? Internet search as a commodity–yeah right.

Anyway i have to run and meet my wife and see some comedy–a hilarious British comedian called Paul Merton–just ask google! http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=paul+merton&btnG=Google+Search