Regulating the Google machine?

Some thoughts on the issue of regulating search engines… will Google eventually wind up in cahoots with the government?

While doing a little research for class this week and setting up my iGoogle home page and Google Reader, I discovered a Wall Street Journal article, A new short story imagines Google as a bad big brother, that discusses the potentially invasive capabilities of search engines… specifically Google. The article includes an interview with science-fiction author Cory Doctorow (also an editor of BoingBoing), who’s new short story, “Scroogled,” was published in the last issue of Radar Magazine. As the WSJ describes it, his story creates a world in which Google turns into "Big Brother." Could this happen to the inventive, avant-garde company?

Google launched Google U.S. Government Search in 2006, which targets federal employees who often need to search across several government agencies. In fact, Google complied with the Chinese government's online regulations in order to launch the search services in that country. However, I think it is highly unlikely that Google would "team up" with the U.S. government at this point in time.

Regarding the question of regulation, some regulation may be a good thing to protect users, but the real question, as with any regulatory issue, is "where do we draw the line?"