An Austrian journalist is criticizing Google and its business practices since a while now. At the end of 2007 he published a document with the title “Report on dangers and opportunities posed by large search engines, particularly Google” (pdf download). The blogosphere was reacting strongly against this document since Google seems to be everyone’s darling (who is not using it on a daily basis?).
Now he published a book called “Die Google Falle” (“The Google trap”) where he is writing about how Google is actively supporting censorship in China and about their data mining (data gathering) practices. And just recently Google share holders asked for a statement by the company concerning human rights and censorship. It looks like that pressure on Google from the public is growing.
In my opinion it is important that there are people who analyze and criticize mainstream online services like Google or others – just to keep the balance! Because these public companies are exposed to huge pressure from share holders which demand constant growth and profit. It is understandable that they will do everything to meet the expectations.
You can find more information to this topic on Altavista or Hotbot. 😉