I really dig Google but I do have a peeve with them as a blogger. Do a name search for me and the number one result is my blog. Fine and dandy, but I've placed a robots.txt file in my index directory and have anti-robot metadata on my index page. Google has a delisting service but it's only good for 90 days. Supposedly, after delisting if you have the anticrawler measures in effect you should be left alone, but my experience has proved otherwise. Some people like the exposure their blog gets from Google, but I don't necessarily want my own information that readily available.

Whoa, that's a problem many wish they had!

I'm number one for my name, too. I never know if people find my site because they want to see my site or if they're looking for the composer Tom Johnson (I assume the latter, more people know him, I think.) I believe there may be a photographer with my name too. We're everywhere.

Indeed, there's an exceptionally talented photographer named after me, too. We all have our own reasons for blogging and while I don't mind who reads my blog, I don't necessarily want them there because Google led them there with a search for "Yao Ming's Penis" or "stinky farts", ya' know?

I have no such compunctions whatsoever - every Google straggler is another potential reader.

I google all the time, but not without keeping a wary eye on 'Google Watch' and the like while I'm at it. You never know what they're doing with you while you make use of them. ;)
I think part of your point is made, Eric, by the very fact that I can't think offhand of any other places apart from Google and Amazon which have Hack books in their own right as sites.

Google is great for doing research on software technologies. the funny thing about it is that i can be looking for some info on, say, how to use microsoft .net remoting...and it's easier (and faster) to google it rather than use micosofts pathetic search tool inside of a locally installed MSDN.

funny, but not surprising.

I find it amazing how quickly "Google" has become synonymous with with "web search."

Actually, it's not so amazing. They became obsessed with the concept of relative searches. When people use the search it is kind of important that they get results that mean something. Yahoo became all too concerned with being a portal and being the jack of all trades and thus became the master of none.

Ok, well, they probably have a few good services but I rarely use them for anything.

Google, on the other hand, well I have their deskbar and toolbar running and use them frequently.

Yahoo! still uses Google for their searches, but that is supposedly coming to an end

another odd search angle: since our own search engine only works on text within posts, not comments, not author names, I'm not sure about post titles, sometimes the best way to find something in our own site is to "google it."

Eric, point noted. Will consider switching our search box to use Google's engine instead. While I've always thought that searching the titles and bodies of posts would be what I would want, I did find myself wanting to search for a particular comment the other day myself. ;-)