Google’s pride setting up for a fall?

We’ve seen complaints about Google before in the blogosphere, but there recently seems to have been a steady number of high profile articles criticising Google for one issue or another - after the CNet news blackout debacle, the New York Times reports on general whining from Silicon Valley about Google (apparently, anything they can do, Google can do better).

However, Dan Gilmour is much closer the mark with his comments on the “unnecessary arrogance” of Google - in which he outlines out Google’s attitude towards dealing with the outside world as the main cause for concern about Google’s future prospects.

Privacy concerns with Google have been a generally valid point of criticism from a consumer point of view - not least in an environment where consumer privacy seems more and more blatantly eroded, but also because Google’s late entry into a range of internet services, not least GMail, seemed to especially underline a motivation simply for collecting user and behaviour data for future marketing purposes.

However, one of issues of most concern should be Google’s attitude towards copyright - not least how Google apparently think that copyright protection is something people need to opt-in for, but is also compounded by the blatant modification of copyright material - without permission - as per the autolink feature of the Google Toolbar.

These issues show an appalling lack of respect for the in-built protections of third-parties and copyright issues, and while Google are clear that they regard making commercial exploitation of copyrighted material are entirely within the DMCA (an issue Danny Sullivan says is a matter of time before is tested in court), Google conversely insist that their own listings of other people’s material are copyrighted.

This is where Google are making the most dangerous presumptions of all - that other people’s content can be exploited at will for Google’s own benefit - but protections inherent to protect against commercial exploitation of third-party works are effectively inapplicable.

At the moment Google are a powerhouse of an internet company, with few vulnerabilities - however, their dominance is founded on revenues from AdWords, and as Yahoo! Publisher Network rolls out in competition, and then Microsoft’s own AdCenter completes development, we will almost certainly see a Google threatened with becoming poorer, weaker, and humbler.

If Google continue to be seen to be an arrogant company, happy to exploit third-parties and negate their inherent rights for its own benefit, then Google must surely accept that any coming fall from grace is going to be very much it’s own responsibility.