How much power does and should Google have are different questions, and I'm only interested in the should part. While I was listening to NPR, they brought up the Viacom and YouTube lawsuit, with particular interest in the data Google will be turning over about all of us. I'm sure you know about this, so I won't cover it.

As you might expect, public radio has a larger audience than our forum of SEO Experts, so they had to explain the whole situation. Also to be expected, they explain it as "Google is a private, commercial entity, whose goal is to make a profit". After alluding to a possible conflict between the public interest and Google's interest, they mentioned the case of a Black Hat SEO company who "claims to have been removed from Google's search results. Google confirmed that this is in fact true".

(1) Should Google be beholden to the public interest? Is it like how a democracy relies on an informed public, and newspapers and TV stations using the public airwaves are obliged to cover public interest material? Does the public's right and society's reliance on public information dictate that companies (like Google) can't remove public access to or "findability" of information?

(2) How should the case of private, also for profit companies whose operations necessarily reduce the quality of a search engine be treated? If a person wants to do a search for them, does that person have a right to find them through Google? Is this type of malicious destruction of SE value an exception to #1?

(3) Does the honey pot effect, where even if Google refuses to share their data, other people want it enough to sue or steal it, along with privacy concerns, out weigh Google's inherent right to run their company the way they like? And how does that compare against the public interest in a quality search engine, that demands innovation?

Let me answer with another question.

How much power should YOU have over YOUR site?

google doesn't have that much power ...

Google has the power they have because WE allow them to. We actually give it to them by making their SE's almost a monopoly. Yahoo is not dead, but they are almost the only competitor out there. Their products kick @ss, everybody wants to use them and that's why they have so much power.
If another company out there starts to launch services as good as Google, google power will decrease. Is it too late though?

Honestly I think Google deserves all the power it has. They may be for profit but overall, everything that Google does is for the benefit of society and people. They are an extremely considerate company considering the power they have compared to large companies like walmart, enron, microsoft, blah, blah.

Just hopefully they are not so smart that they have been planning this the whole time with their ultimate goal being world domination! muaa ha ha ha ha ha

Originally Posted by willcode4beer

Let me answer with another question.

How much power should YOU have over YOUR site?

If my site is to shout fire in a crowded theater, maybe not that much.

Now Google doesn't get a monopoly on a band of public airwaves, so they don't owe a debt to society in the way broadcast television does. Where NBC has to repay that debt by showing N % of public interest material, nothing like that exists with Google. They run servers they bought with private funds, they use code they wrote themselves (and commonly open to the public), and all the infrastructure that brings Google into each home, is all private.

That leaves only the specter of monopoly as a legitimate reason to legislate control over Google's operations. Not just a monopoly over the ad market (I frankly don't care), but over public access to information. Am I right on that?

And if so, how far do you think they are from being the center of gravity for information? Does Wikipedia prevent that from happening?

Any power Google has at the moment or will have in the future comes from them having built a good search engine and us using it. Nothing is really stopping any of us from using Yahoo or MSN or any other search engine. Often those other engines produce results just as good if not better.

It's an interesting question. I don't think it's so much Wikipedia that prevents Google from becoming the gravity center of information, but rather a variety of different sources.

Social media for one. I've been finding a lot more content through social sites via recommendations by people I trust. Often you can get quicker and better results by asking a question on Twitter or Plurk than you will from asking a search engine.

I think following the trail of links is also another good way to find information. I read blog A who recommends blog B and both recommend blog C. That tends to keep you in a certain neighborhood, but it still allows for the discover of new information.

I think we are and will continue to see more vertical search engines. If you're looking for travel information you might go first to a site like Kayak to search instead of the general search engine.

Also consider that while it seems like Google controls the entire internet that won't always be true. Another company will eventually come along and knock them off the pedestal much the same way they knocked Microsoft off it and the way Microsoft knocked IBM off it.

The next battleground could very well be the mobile space. Another company could create a better mobile search and in a few years we'll all be asking if Google can possibly compete with this new company.

I realize I didn't answer your original question of how much information should they control. I'm not sure what that answer is. I guess I'd say they should control as much as they can as long as they're not preventing someone else from trying to control it all too. The only control they really have now is what we let them have.

Google is governing 70 % of the search market today and its because of us.

Originally Posted by Learning Newbie

...but over public access to information. Am I right on that?

Sorry, no.
If google went away, the information would still be there.

Even if we were talking about search, there are literally hundreds of search engines around.

The scary thing for the google folks is knowing that if some kids found a way to make a better search engine, google could evaporate practically over-night. Remember, google was started by a few kids, and they toppled the big players quickly by doing it better.

Google does NOT control access to information. They can only control the information you try to access through google.

Originally Posted by Supercops

Google is governing 70 % of the search market today and its because of us.

Change "governing" to "receiving" and it will be more accurate

I can not and will not fault Google for being successful. And as mentioned above they are only as powerful as we use them. People all like to forget that at one time America Online was not just a giant, but close to a monopoly in the internet game.

I am a big Google fan.

I think all in all Google cover 80% of the market on the net.