Is Google trying to take over the world?  Are the alarmists right this time, and we’ll all be ruled by some pencil-neck geek in a hidden office who is never seen?  I can’t blame some people for being wary.  The internet giant who chews up their competitors hit the digital universe with both barrels this week.

First, they announced their new social network Buzz and within hours it appeared on every Gmail accounts’ pages.  Shamelessly choosing Facebook’s 6th-anniversary date to introduce it (or would you say thuggishly?), they brag that they have taken Facebook’s more popular features and folded them into the Gmail program along with a notification feature that not only acts like Twitter as well, but it even looks like Twitter.  “Oh, the arrogance,” you might say.

And then just two days later, they announce that they are now beginning a project to wire cooperating cities and towns with a proprietary fiber-optic cable network that will provide internet service at the unimaginable speed of 1 Gb per second, and that’s just for starters.  Claiming that current ISP’s high subscription rates and (relatively) slow connection speeds are hindering advances in internet communications (and profits…..Ed.), they are inviting small and medium-size cities to apply to become candidates for this new venture.  Google says that all their technological discoveries with their super-speed service will be shared with everybody and the entire project will be an open-source code, thus inviting innovative uses and fresh imagination from developers.

Just as important, Google says that its new network will be available for any ISP to operate over, thus hopefully encouraging competition in the internet delivery system.  This comes as bad news to ISP providers like AT&T and Comcast who are trying to expand their subscription rates by charging customer higher rates if they “consume” more bandwidth.  That type of policy has a dampening effect on people who like to share and view YouTube videos, for example.  They will either cut back on watching videos, or fork out more cash to keep on doing what they are doing now.  Oh, did you  remember that Google owns YouTube now?

If you’ll pardon the metaphor, this was Google’s shot across the bow of the telecom giants that they had better shape up and start lowering rates while improving service, or they’ll come back to work one Monday and find the Google giant munching on their customer base.  You may have noticed that over the past year Google has acquired some cellular airwaves and infiltrated almost every wireless phone provider with their Android phones.  Why, you could conceivably think that they are setting everything up so that very soon, all they will have to do is throw a switch and……. Google will take over the world.

Before they do, though… we have to get this equipment checked out.  I’ll get the coffee started, then we’ll meet back in the day room.  And turn your cell phones off.