Kind of scary, and as a big fan of anonymity on the Internet it looks like I'll pass on gmail and orkut. Google needs to realize they are a search engine company and that's all they will ever be.
Yeah or you can have your browser reject Google's cookies outright. Still, I don't like what they are up to...
The problem is, if Google wants to go public with the bang everyone's expecting from them (and actually last unlike most of the other dot coms of the late 90s) they need to prove they have more to their business model than just a nifty search algorithm. From a relevancy perspective (which has been their biggest selling point) their search engine is no longer head and shoulders above the competition, at best they're pretty much even with competition like Yahoo now (and actually behind smaller competition like Teoma IMO.) They obviously have a very strong advertising network which has tremendously helped bolster their bottom line (we use them heavily for numerous clients.) But again, that is a function of the popularity of their search algorithm and outside of that, they don't really have all that much to offer from a content perspective that makes them standout like they want to (and what content they do have they don't actively promote.) Google used to be dead set against becoming a portal site like Yahoo, but in the last year they're realizing they're going to have to have something more than just a search engine if they want longevity as a business. If another hot search engine suddenly surged onto the scene a company like Yahoo might take a pretty big hit, but would stand a pretty strong chance of surviving given that they 'don't have all their eggs in one basket.' Google on the other hand could be devastated if they don't diversify their business.
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