• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, April 23, 2007

Concerns are growing about Google's increasing influence over media -- and for good reason.

As the dominant search engine, Google is emerging as a gatekeeper to the world's information. One day, probably soon, if a business doesn't exist in Google's index, it may as well not exist at all. At least one business, KinderStart, already faced this prospect when it found itself delisted from Google's index and sued the company.

In that case, Google successfully argued it had a First Amendment right to list anyone it chooses in the results. But that reasoning carries a lot more weight when, as is the case today, Google still faces competition from Yahoo, Microsoft and other search engines. As long as other viable search engines exist, Google risks losing market share if other companies offer searchers more complete or relevant results. But if Google crowds out other companies, it will have less to lose by returning arbitrary results.

And that's only in search. Now that Google has extended its reach over video with YouTube and potential reach over display ads with the planned DoubleClick acquisition, the dangers of a Google monopoly on the Web are becoming more apparent.

Consider what happened on YouTube last week. The video-sharing site removed a clip of John McCain singing a song about bombing Iran to the melody of "Barbara Ann" by the Beach Boys. The company, which removed the clip after some users flagged it, has since restored the video.

Some activists criticized YouTube for removing it even temporarily, but whether they have any legal grounds to condemn YouTube isn't clear. Logically, YouTube, like Google, can also claim a First Amendment right to remove any material it wishes. Of course, as with search engines, Google's YouTube might be the main video-sharing site, but it isn't the only one. Not yet, anyway.

For now, the incident, like the failed KinderStart lawsuit, illustrates the potential danger of one company controlling people's access to information.