Everyone knows Google - it's the verb we love, the internet search that's our ubiquitous friend. Google may have started out with a search engine but they are much more now. Google is a web browser (Chrome), an email client (Gmail), a messaging app (Talk), and voice chat (Voice). Google is an office suite that comprehensively manages your documents and calendar (Google Apps). Google is an operating system not just for your computer (Chrome), but for your cell phone (Android). Google is YouTube, Google Earth, and Google Maps.

Not only does Google have a picture of your house, they know your address, what you write and to whom, who you email and message with, what you store on your computer's hard drive (Google Desktop). They know what you do on your Android phone. They know what addresses you look up on Maps, and they know what photos you saved and look at with Picasa. This all seems great in the surface, but it would be wise to remember:

Google isn't in business to provide us with free stuff.

Follow up:

Google is in the business of selling advertising and targeting it specifically to you, Jamie Clarkson of 422 West Drive, who runs a small catering business and is trying to save enough to send his two children, Arch and Lindsey, to college. I bet Mr. Clarkson would be shocked to see the photos his son is collecting on a Picasa online album, or the messages Lindsey has been exchanging with Kyle, a young man she met on Google's social network, Buzz. Google's not surprised though; it's all indexed.

All this is rather amusing when you think back to the battles Microsoft has fought just to bundle their web browser, Internet Explorer, with their operating system. Monopoly!, people cried. Evil Microsoft, always out to make a buck at our expense with their high priced software. Microsoft does a lot of the same things Google is getting involved with now - messaging, documents, email, web browser and operating systems. But there's a fundamental difference. Unlike Google, Microsoft wants to sell you stuff. They want you to pay them for their operating system, for their office suite. They want your money directly, without guile. Google wants you to be free! Free to live in a Google world of maps and chat and apps, joyfully skipping along the information superhighway without a care. Just as long as you let them index you along the way. Just that one catch. Funny how that little thing, just indexing you and selling ads that target you netted them $6 billion in quarterly revenues (Q3/2009).

Google's stock price has tripled in the last 5 years (2005-2010). I'm willing to bet that being able to integrate everything about you is worth 10 times more than just indexing your web searches. Google is handing out all this free software from operating systems and office suites to phones and people are snapping this stuff up like like a mob grabbing 20 dollar bills strewn along the highway. You can be sure that Google intends to recoup this massive investment. Consider that a not so indirect 'buy' recommendation: $600 a share is cheap if they're heading to $6000.

Google is in its infancy right now. They are for the most part all about internet search and ads. Once they have filled in the blanks, connected all the dots they are working to connect, Google will be more pervasive and all encompassing than Microsoft ever was. This isn't just them having an index of your web searches, it's your phone, your files, your documents, the directions you looked up. They'll know who you connect with on their social network, who you chat with and when. We can dismiss all this with a wave and claim "Google isn't evil". No corporation that's in it for the money is, are they?

Evil or not, Google is in the business of selling you. I may be old school, and privacy may be a thing of the past, but if I'm getting chopped up and sold, I want a cut.

Enjoy the Onion's 'parody' of privacy concerns surrounding Google. Perhaps you'll see that it isn't much of a parody at all.

The Onion: Google Responds to Privacy Concerns