Next Time, Google it

Aside from whatever you may think of the relative speed and relevance of their search engines, Google has provided on more reason for you to use it rather than its competitors Yahoo and Microsoft MSN; Google has resisted efforts of the Bush Administration to hand over information on what people search for, while its competitors have happily provided the data.

The government insists that it has no intention of identifying the people associated with the searches but Google believes that with enough information in the government's hands that could be pieced together.

In contrast to Google's resistance to our government's efforts to extract this information, Microsoft has shown itself willing to comply with the requests of virtually any government. In addition to providing the data requested by the US government in this case, MicroSoft recently acceded to a request by the Chinese Government to shut down a blog that had been critical of the Chinese Government. For all its advertising about how they open up possibilities, MicroSoft's actions demonstrate that it's really about keeping markets open and making a buck. That may be how it should be for a public company, but knock off the phony tributes to expanding horizons and realizing dreams.