Bill Thompson's article Is Google too powerful? has caused an outcry. Tom Coates of plasticbag.org has already commented on the statements that Weblogs are not journalism and all that. No need to quote the entire article. Coates wrote another piece called Weblogs and Journalism a while ago. It's all about writing columns.

But Thompson had another point nonetheless:

"Google is a privately-owned US company that has a policy of collecting as much information as possible about everyone who uses its search tool.

It will store your computer's IP address, the time/date, your browser details and the item you search for.

It sets a tracking cookie on your computer that does not expire until 2038.

This means that Google builds up a detailed profile of your search terms over many years.

Google probably knew when you last thought you were pregnant, what diseases your children have had, and who your divorce lawyer is.

It refuses to say why it wants this information or to admit whether it makes it available to the US Government for tracking purposes.

And the much-loved Google toolbar tells Google about every web page you look at. (...) Perhaps the time has come to recognise this dominant search engine for what it is - a public utility that must be regulated in the public interest.

The argument about keeping away from regulating the internet and the web has always been that the technology is not mature enough or important enough to merit government interference. "