Who's afraid of Google? Turns out, lots of people.

A long open letter to Google chief Eric Schmidt by the CEO of German publishing house Axel Springer in today's Frankfurter Allgemeine is one of many articles dealing with the Power of Google, present and future.

TheEditor of the K-Landnews read the article, thought about it for a minute and cobbled together this post.

Just because.

There is one point in Mr. Doepfner's open letter that we agree with. That of privacy and the snappy crappy "if you have nothing to hide" and the "if you don't want people to know" comments by Mrss. Schmidt and Zuckerberg. It is the aspect of privacy for me, absolutely -- for you, no, but it is not limited to these two gentlemen.

As TheEditor gathered pace, this sentence took shape:
Personally, I would certainly not want to run a traditional publishing house.

Wait, that sentence is just standard boilerplate comment baloney. TheEditor was about to write a stupid ass statement! I would love to be at the head of Axel Springer, compensation is certainly high enough for me to run the outfit for two years, then retire and do something different. Responsibility for the well being of the companies and the employees and for good press coverage, the desire for a fair shake?

Do you have to be an utter cynic or read too much Bild Zeitung to take these with a grain of salt?

Criticizing the "fiction of free stuff" in the year 2014 comes about 20 years too late.

I have been around long enough to remember and to instantly say "bunk" when the mainstream media discovered the internet (or the web) and believe to recall lots of articles claiming that almost everything will be free in the future.

As a youngster with almost no money, I thought, how cool would that be!
As a youngster with few illusions, I thought, no, it won't!

As a middle-aged human with almost no money, I think, well, I know Google et al feed off of my data and those of millions of others. But that's all I've got, so leave me be.

As long as there is no law forcing me to buy Google Stuff, I'm fine.

If and when the Google Cars are everywhere, shucks, I hope I am still fit enough to walk the last mile. In the dark if need be to evade Google Drones.

Those of us who don't have great jobs and fancy homes to lose, we only have to fear our politicians, what they do to us, and what Google is willing to do for them by way of cozying up.

So, stop whining, elect yourself a government that works for the people.

If that fails, spend the last of your cash on a Google Margarita and enjoy the 3 D ads projected into the drink.

[Update] We have Google ads on this blog, generating a few cents a week, not enough to buy our consideration or friendship. We do not have Google shares, yes, darn.