Google and Yahoo...and SoCal

In Socal, we're supposed to be on the side of Yahoo!, because their glitzy Santa Monica offices clearly show something like an investment, and/or knowledge, of La-la Land — and Hollywood.

But in the big Google-DOJ Sh*%-storm making waves today, the good guy seems to be the Googlers, who are trying to protect users' privacy. Whereas our local boys did their best impression of the cowardly lion, caving to the pressure immediately.

Simply put, the Bush administration has subpoenaed Google for details on what its users have been looking for through its popular search engine — Google resisted. Yahoo, on the other hand, gave it up.

Now, short-term the Google=good; yahoo='fraidy-cat equation looks right. But down the line, our real concern is about the vast vast database of information Google is collecting, and how eventually the government is gonna win (it always does), and get access to all that stuff.