Forbes.com has an interesting opinion piece that suggests that Google's denial and promised legal challenge to the recent government request for search query data may have a lot more to do with the company protecting itself than keeping user's private information from curious eyes.

The article suggests that the amount of pornography being searched on the net's biggest search engine might be a huge embarrassment to the company.

ReveNews suggests that Google is afraid of setting a precedent that could come back to haunt them if the government's all-seeing eye should turn to an investigation of click fraud. And the author, Shmuly Tennenhaus (I have no idea if that's his real name), issues the following challenge:

"Google is a big-talker but they do not walk the walk. They believe in the free access and proliferation of information. Here's the fun part: when you call up Google's corporate offices, the operators are forbidden to give out their first names. I swear on my most beloved possessions; my first three seasons of 24 on DVD. You read correctly. Not last names. First names are verboten when calling Google. I've asked them (can't name anyone, since they're all anonymous in Google...) and they've told me it's corporate law. The FBI receptionists @ 202-324-3000 have the same policy. Are Google & the FBI actually twins separated at birth???

Does anyone appreciate the absurdity in all of this? With Google, I can probably find out how old you were when you first lost your virginity. (The second time you lost your virginity would be a bit tougher to track down with Google Search. For that you'd need Google Local.) Google believes in the-open-flow-of-info. Yet their own secretaries cannot "divulge" their first names. This is the same Google that aims for everyone to know everything about anything! Today, I urge you to take the Google Hypocrisy Challenge. Call up google corporate: 650-623-4000 & say "Hi, was wondering if you can help me. My first name is Wally. What's YOUR first name?" And they will reply that it's against company policy to share this (top-secret) information. Ridiculous I say! Let's see how many calls of this nature it takes for Google to publicly rationalize this nutty & contradictory edict!"