Well, the paperwork hasn’t even been signed and dated yet, but the inevitable slanging match between Google and MicroHoo! has already begun, with big G taking the first pot shot over on their official blog.

Citing Microsoft’s history of etablishing “proprietary monopolies” within the market, Senior Vice President David Drummond explains that the merger between the two minnows to Google’s shark (at least in search revenue terms) could hinder the “competitive innovation” of the internet.

But wait, is this seriously a spokesperson for Google, the company that have successfully monopolised virtually the entire search realm, to the point that “googling” has become to “searching” what “hoovering” is to “vacuuming”. The same Google that has webmasters stressing over whether “paid advertising” is going to kill not only their site but their entire business, just because Google doesn’t like them?

Google argue that “Microsoft plus Yahoo! equals an overwhelming share of instant messaging and web email accounts”. It’s a fair point - combined, Yahoo and MSN will pretty much control instant messaging on the net. Rather like, when combined, Google Video and Youtube pretty much control online video on the net.

Drummond finishes the press release explaining that “[Google] believe that the interests of Internet users come first”. While that’s a lovely sentiment, it’s also complete BS. Before “the interests of Internet users” comes the bottom line, the profits for Google and their shareholders. It’s the way business is run and the way they’ve become and stayed the kingpins of search. Something tells me that what Google have said isn’t motivated by a desire to preserve “the underlying principles of the Internet”, but much more by a desire to protect that bottom line. The publicity surrounding this merger could detract a lot of revenue from Google as advertisers try out the new combined MSN and Yahoo! search but smearing the merger in such an obviously hypocritical way just makes them look bitter.

Competetion is a good thing in most industries, it forces innovation rather than stifles it. Google has been head honcho for such a long time now that users are beginning to forget that there could be an alternative, perhaps even a better one, in spite of Google frequently returning dissapointing results (how many times have you given up wading through all the review, affiliate and adwords pages delivered for specific searches?). It’s about time some credible competition faced up to them - even if it does have to be Bill Gates.