From the local webmaster to the heads of multi-national corporations, fear and distrust, and sometimes even outright hatred of Google are growing. It’s not hard to understand why. The company has had a meteoric rise to prominence which has catapulted them to the forefront of the search engine universe, and few companies could even dream of having this type of influence in any industry. Google is a company that often appears arrogant, and they’re compiling data at a dizzying rate which might give anyone pause for concern.

Given this, the onus of proof is with Google’s would-be prosecutors to prove it is doing something wrong. On antitrust, the price that Google charges its advertisers is set by auction, so its monopolistic clout is limited; and it has yet to use its dominance in one market to muscle into others in the way Microsoft did. The same presumption of innocence goes for copyright and privacy. Google’s book-search product, for instance, arguably helps rather than hurts publishers and authors by rescuing books from obscurity and encouraging readers to buy copyrighted works. And, despite Big Brotherish talk about knowing what choices people will be making tomorrow, Google has not betrayed the trust of its users over their privacy. If anything, it has been better than its rivals in standing up to prying governments in both America and China.

Since Google has so much influence, and is collecting so much information, it’s suggested that the company becomes more transparent in its’ dealings with people. Of course this would help to alleviate some of the paranoia. The company has always shown a capacity for being extremely tight-lipped, though, so it’s hard to imagine a change in their basic nature, especially considering how successful they’ve been.

Do you think the complaints about Google are legitimate, or do you think it’s the result of “sour grapes” from disgruntled competitors?