Google is refusing to talk to CNET journalists. The news has turned into a debate, which has now little to do with the two parties involved.

This incident originated from a CNET article that proved that Google's amazing searching functions can be used to find information on a person. CNET chose to exemplify its theory by searching information on Google's CEO, Eric Schimdt.

The article also said that Google Desktop Search transmits personal information to Google, but the information was retracted.

Google's reaction consisted in the announcement that Google won't talk to CNET reporters for 1 year.

Right after the information became public, the debate extended beyond the conflict between the two corporations, the issue being now whether 'Is it ok for a company to refuse talking to reporters?'

The way in which the two entities have dealt with this issue, CNET which wanted sensational news and Google, which regarded the article as a violation of the privacy rights, is understandable and after all, both parties have solid arguments to justify their decisions.

During the years, there have been all sorts of celebrities who, at some point, decided not to talk to the press, because many times, journalists are forced to play watchdogs, a behavior which can annoy people.

It's strange that everyone is talking about Google's reaction or CNET's approach, but nobody is saying a word on the personal information that can be found using a search engine.

Google is not the first, nor the last search engine, and older Internet users are aware that once entering the virtual world, it's impossible not to leave traces. It would naïve for someone to think that once venturing on the Internet, his/her virtual adventures are not being recorded somewhere, or at least a part of them.

We all like a search engine capable of quickly returning many results, but we are seldom aware of the implications of the search engines' expansion and the improvement of the indexing algorithms on our personal lives.

We are happy every time one of the search engines: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask.com is introducing some new gizmo, but we don't realize that together with it, our lives become more public, and sometimes our Internet queries can say more about us than any psychiatrist could.

After all, the fact that Google is not talking to CNET anymore (a problem which will probably be solved sooner than 2006, otherwise both companied will end up looking like children fighting over toys) is not the real problem here.

Yahoo is currently indexing more web pages than Google and as I was saying, Google is not the only search engine. But the question is: do we want and are we capable of paying the price of searches that are far more powerful than we can imagine?