Martin, as usual you, provide thoughtful fodder for us to consider.
I believe, until someone else comes along, that Google will someday be the Borg and resistance will be futile.
As Seth Godin said in a 2007 speech to Google employees: It’s all in how people feel about the brand and many like Google for all the things it offers.
Soon, we will receive green electrcity from initiatives at Google.org. We’ll celebrate our 2 minutes of fame on YouTube. Otherwise, unpublished authors will have a “platform” on Google…and so on.
Having written this, I’m still struggling with giving up my privacy by signing onto Google tools so that I can get website page rankings.
However, on the flip side, I have profited from Google. Not as a publisher mind you, but as a trader.
For a recent example, see “A $3,400 Birthday Present from Google” at http://www.TADWU.us (20 Aug. 2009) entry.