I know Google seems to be everyone's favorite company especially with their supposed "do no evil" written into their mission statement and yet they seem to be doing the exact same things that when Microsoft does them are considered evil.

First off, Google complained that Microsoft's IE7 will default to Microsoft's search. Yet Google's own toolbar not only defaults to Google and it's not even settable unlike IE7.

Google's toolbar can help you post to blogs.....but only if the blog is on Blogger.com which is run by Google. Why can't I pick any blog service? Standards for posting to blogs have been around long before Google even introduced the toolbar. You could argue Google is not supporting standards since they are clearly only supporting their proprietary solution. Something that when Microsoft does it is considered evil.

Google's toolbar can also let you send a page to a friend through e−mail....But only if you use gmail, their email service to send it. Sending through e−mail is also a standard and yet Google is not supporting it. If Microsoft did this it would be considered evil.

Google's newest toolbar now supports online bookmarks. The advantage to online bookmarks is no matter where you are when you create the bookmark it will be available anywhere else you login and use the toolbar. There have been several sites which support this, one of the most famous is del.icio.us which also supports an API for allowing any program to add and edit bookmarks. But, here again, Google only supports their proprietary solution.

Google has a free image organizing program called Picasa. It has also has features for posting to blogs, in this case photos. But, here again Google only supports their proprietary solution and again there is no excuse as standards for doing this existed long before Picasa.

Of course Google supporters will point out that Microsoft is a monopoly and that the Google Toolbar and Picasa among other Google software are optional. Unfortunately that completely misses the point.

Google says "we will do no evil". When Microsoft tries to keep you locked in to their proprietary solutions people claim they are evil. Clearly Google is attempting to do the same thing. They make all of their tools work with only other Google services. Through their web presence (they are to the net what Microsoft is to OSes) and their tools they are trying to make it as hard as possible to not use 100% Google services. This is no different what people claim is Microsoft's evil. It's clear Google's goal is to wall their users into using everything Google. The same techniques that people claim Microsoft used to get a monopoly Google is now trying to use to create one themselves.

Come on Google, Live up to your own mission! Don't be evil!