Google ready to pursue its agenda in Washington
"These people at Google are deep into every aspect of the internet and have their spiders crawling on every piece of web data world wide every day .They have huge data storage capacity and computing power at their disposal and are second only to the NSA in spying capacity on world wide internet traffic .In order to create his 'Brave New World in America' Obama needs to know what every American is saying and doing in support or opposition to his agenda and Google is a natural for that task !"
"Google's in Bed With Obama's Agenda. "They're in a great position to push their agenda through with the support of the president and the Democrats in Congress."
The executives and employees of Google Inc., whose whose headquarters is in Mountain View, Ca., overwhelmingly supported Obama's candidacy. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt is now as likely as any corporate chieftain to get his calls to the White House returned.
Its employees supported Obama and four Googlers served on his transition team. Now the Internet giant hopes to win support for so-called network neutrality and expanding high-speed Internet access.
In October, Google was only hours from being sued by the Justice Department as a Web-search monopolist. Today, less than three years after it made its first Washington hire, the Internet giant is poised to capitalize on its backing of President Obama and pursue its agenda in the nation's capital.
Companies for Obama
Google's executives and employees overwhelmingly supported Obama's candidacy, contributing more money than all but three companies or universities.
And only DreamWorks employees gave more toward inauguration festivities.
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"Google is not just a benign corporate entity. It has a variety of special interests," said Jeff Chester, the executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, who has sparred with Google over data-privacy issues. "They're in a great position to push their agenda through with the support of the president and the Democrats in Congress."
But Google's newfound political ties heighten concerns about its grip on the online advertising market. The company could play better defense against strong competitors trying to curb its influence.
Last fall, Justice Department lawyers, who had been lobbied heavily by Microsoft Corp. and large telecommunications companies, were about to sue Google on antitrust grounds. They wanted to block its controversial search-advertising partnership with Yahoo Inc., but Google abandoned the deal rather than fight in court.
Competitors worry about Google's close relationship with the Obama administration, said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
"The question going forward is: Will Google turn into just another business entity looking for favors in Washington, or will it manage to keep the 767 flying at 30,000 feet above the political din?" he said, a playful reference to the Google founders' private plane.
White House officials did not respond to requests for comment. Obama vowed generally this week that his administration would not be beholden to anyone.
Google says the main reason it has improved its standing in Washington is that Obama's tech priorities mirror its own. He has endorsed network neutrality. His technology agenda also calls for expanding broadband Internet access to rural areas and appointing the first government-wide chief technology officer (Schmidt has been mentioned for the position but reiterated this week he was not interested).
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fi-google24-2009jan24,0,5255660.story
