Although the company is not making any operating system, and apparently it doesn't even plan on doing so, Google is being compared more and more often to Microsoft.
The short intervals of time required by Google to launch new applications and services, which are starting to go beyond Google's area of expertise (searching the Internet), is starting to make its Silicon Valley colleagues wonder where and if it will stop.

During the launching campaign for Google Talk, New York Times published an article in which it summarizes all the charges brought to the company: the arrogance towards its partners or potential partners, the fact that because of Google, new companies are having a hard time funding their projects, the fact that Google has refused to talk to CNET, the fact that the company is recruiting the best programmers and so on.

And since all this sounded familiar to the newspaper, New York Times concluded: Google is starting to look like Microsoft and the newspaper backed its statement with a comment made by Bill Gates who said that Google is a lot like Microsoft.

But New York Times doesn't tackle this problem through the user's perspective. Google might be indeed an obstacle for other companies and the trend of getting involved in other fields, showed by the company, might concern some companies which are already involved. But the fact of the matter is that Google's products are still good and even if Yahoo and MSN are on the rise, they still haven't managed to beat Google.

Is Google heading towards monopole? Certainly yes. The company has never been secretive about its intention of becoming the leader of searches and if this implies launching Google Desktop, Gmail or Google Talk, they didn't and will not hesitate to do it. After all, we owe many of the searching innovations to Google, which, by playing rough, has forced the competition to offer similar services.

Let's not forget that thanks to Google we had our first over 100 MB e-mail accounts, Google Earth and many others. I find odd the companies' attitude of feeling sorry for themselves because Google offers better wages and that's why it has the best programmers, and that each time it gets involved in something, its solution is the best.

I doubt that there are users who feel they are being pushed into using one of Google's services, and I think that when you enjoy Google Talk or Google Dektop it matters less that Google will sell millions of stocks to raise capital.

After all, the companies complaining that Google is expanding, should spend more time and money thinking how to make better products.