If you're a business operating on-line, who has more power over you? Microsoft...or Google?

Increasingly, I think the answer is Google. Google has been a benevolent giant. To my knowledge, they've done nothing menacing or intimidating. But then again, if they had, who would know?

For example, what if your company did something that made it competitive with Google in some way or made Google feel you were a threat. What is to stop them from tweaking their algorithms so that your site suddenly didn't show up as often in search requests? How would you prove it? How would you even know?

As a fan of Google (I've often joked at the office that if my day job doesn't pan out, I'll send my resume to Google), I also recognize their power. In 5 years, it won't be Microsoft that casts a huge shadow over the Internet. It'll be Google. Not necessarily a negative one but a shadow nevertheless. I predict that they will soon dominate the on-line advertising markets. We alerady have Google-served ads here. 

Google has become a giant the old fashioned way - they do a better job. They're innovative and follow through on their ideas. But still, as their influence over the course of the Internet grows, it definitely will start to make people nervous. It's already made me nervous.

For instance, this week a user has been using Google Groups to post warez links to our software along with trying to spam our news groups with defammatory statements about our products, me, and our company. He's not a customer (former or current). He's just..well some nutball. His posts only show up on Google Groups via his Google groups account because our NNTP server is private and you can only post to it directly. So luckily, few people actually see his nonsense.

But still, it's very annoying that someone could potentially find warez links along with libelous nonsense about me because he's on Google Groups. We never asked for Google to archive our internal tech support news server. They just do. I've contacted Google about this issue but haven't heard from them. His posts clearly violate their terms of service. But what if they just blow me off? If it were just some ISP or some other company, you could send the legal guys after them. A written request from lawyers can accomplish wonders. But this is Google. Tick them off and they can potentially erase you from existence as far as the rest of the world knows. 

My point isn't that I thnk Google would do that. The point is that they could do that if they wanted. They wouldn't even have to do anything particularly malicious. Just tweak their search engine so that your results show up on the second page.  This isn't unique to Google, it would be true of any information resource that is emerging as dominant as Google is. I've said it myself - if it ain't on Google it might as well not exist. If Microsoft wants to retaliate against someone, it's hard for them to be subtle. But Google (or any other mega search engine company) could retaliate in ways that even the target wouldn't necessarily realize.

Thankfully, like I said, Google has been benevolent so far.  But I don't know about the rest of you but I'm finding myself in the awkward position of hoping that Microsoft does get into the search engine business with their own search engine technology.  Microsoft's anti-competitive practices are well known. I've seen them first hand during my OS/2 days.  But as long as there is reasonable competition in the search engine business, no one company will dominate what you see and don't see on the net. And that makes me feel a lot more comfortable.