More than Fireworks in the Garden this July 4th!

Wayne Porter has an indepth analysis with regard to his view on the direction Google appears to be headed in his "4th of July and Google's Core Four: Risks, Rewards & Offense Versus Defense". Although a lot of the writeup is *techie*, even the casual reader should garner enough from Wayne's writings to know that the time has come to be rather cautious around other offerings by Google. As Wayne states:

"Google is about to shift into a new realm- a new extension of its brand. No longer just the neutral helper and finder of great information, trendy logos, and cool trend finders augmented with handy services, and gigs of mail, but they will implant themselves into the stream where customer trust is more fickle, more critical and fumbles can be fatal or even cumulative in damage."

Through CPA (Cost-Per-Action) and Google Checkout, who will be in control and what will they do with those controls? Perhaps this Independence Day is time to consider a tea party of a different sort. I think I'll be getting my tea from MSN.

Happy Independence Day, America!