Left Lane

Business. Politics. It probably has something to do with the Bush administration.

Not in the way you may think, though.

Today the Bush administration is calling for Google to give up the goods. The government wants to track how often pornography is filtered through its system, and needs Google database information to do it.

It is a big deal that the government is publicly approaching Google to do this. It acknowledges huge market share, but at the same time it acknowledges that Google is vulnerable enough and not associated enough with Bush supporters to be made the guinea pig in this Bush administration experiment. Where are Yahoo and Microsoft in this attempt to reduce pornography? Google is becoming more of a technical powerhouse every day and I think some are getting scared. Stranger things have happened.

Expect Google to put up a fight until at least 2008.

UPDATE (1/19/06 11pm): Yahoo, AOL, and MSN have consented to giving search data to the Department of Justice in this ongoing investigation, while Google holds strong and says “no.”

Posted in Politics, Business.