Is Google Becoming the New GM?

For the past couple of years, Google has been working hard to lock up the world's knowledge base, scanning everything that's ever been in print, determining for its own nefarious purposes what should be known and by whom. For the latest on Google's advancement in its plans to control the world's access to knowledge, see Miguel Helft's "Google's Plan for Out-of-Print Books Is Challenged" in today's New York Times.

Remember back in the 1960s when General Motors was the fourth most powerful economic entity in the world, surpassed only by the U. S., Britain, and the U. S. S. R.? (GM is now facing bankruptcy and the U. S. S. R. doesn't exist anymore. You already know the financial mess the other two are in.) Thus the question "What happens when one entity garners so much power?"