Google is great. Terrific search engine. Quick. Accurate. Free of clutter. Mettle-proving. Their e-mail client? Robust. Sure, there was a minor flap about "contextual ads" that appear on the basis of the words in your e-mails. But for limitless storage, who isn't willing to sacrifice a little privacy? Just a little. Heck, they even offer to move schools over to G-Mail for free. If you run a Web site, Google offers another useful tool, Analytics, which tracks traffic in great detail. (Yes, we know whether you're a Mac or a PC type, what browser you use, and what kind of deoderant you're wearing.) Sure, in order to use Analytics you have to allow it to, well, join with your Web site in some sense. But what's a little Borgification when you're able to assimilate mass quantities of information about the people who visit your site? (Was that a sneeze? Bless you.) And that's not all. There's Google Documents--upload your Word or whatever files and share them with friends and colleagues! Google can see them, of course, but it's free! And, come on, what are they going to do with your recipes, articles, term papers, legal documents, budgets, or what have you? They only want to help. And Picassa: why are you allowing your super cool pix to languish on your hard drive? Share them! Won't cost you a dime, and you don't have to worry about backing up. They'll be kept safe within the warm embrace of the Google. Forever. They only want to help us, you realize. Search smarter. E-mail more efficiently. Build a better Web site. Share documents, photos. Share.And now, at long last, Google has entered the browser wars. Internet Explorer and Firefox, get ready to meet your match: Google Chrome. It is as one would expect: speedy, svelte, shiny, and, best of all, free of charge. Certainly, you won't mind accepting the user agreement before installing.

By submitting, posting or displaying the content you give Google a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, adapt, modify, translate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute any content which you submit, post or display on or through, the services. This license is for the sole purpose of enabling Google to display, distribute and promote the services and may be revoked for certain services as defined in the additional terms of those services.

So get browsing, friends. Throw off the shackles of Microsoft. Forget Firefox and its bloated, lumbering, outmoded code--they're not even watching what you're writing, searching, e-mailing, feeling. They don't care. Not like Google.