Google is going to court because it doesn't want to release search queries to the government. The government wants to take a sampling of Google's queries and run them back through the search engine to see the results. So, essentially, Google gives them 1000 random queries, someone in the government runs the queries back through Google, and checks the results? Does this seem like a tremendous waste of time to anyone else? If you want to know what shows up in searches, can't the government come up with it's own queries? And just because someone searches for something, that doesn't mean that it's necessarily going to implicate the searcher as a criminal. I've searched for all kinds of crazy shit on Google, just to see what comes up. I've read about how to make a dirty bomb, I've read about terror cells, and other assorted stuff. What would the government do with that information? I can't see a single benefit to having these search queries from any search engine, not just Google. It's a way to make it seem like the government is doing something when they really aren't.

If you really want to know what people are searching for, check this link out. It's a search voyeur, and it's going to blow your mind when you see what people are searching for on the net.

Now, lest you think Google is a bunch of great guys by not giving their queries to the government (MSN, Yahoo, and others have granted the request, but did not provide any personal information about who performed the searches), I think this defiance is more of a attention thing, making them out to be freedom fighters or something. I love Google, and their tools are great, but they did cave in when the Chinese government asked them to filter their results to make them more communist friendly. Sounds a lot like what good old Rupert Murdoch did when the Communist regime didn't like some of the materials being broadcast over Murdoch's satellite television service. Rupert blocked access to any content the Chinese government found objectionable. China is the largest untapped market in the world, who cares if the people are no more than pawns.

That being said, Google has also just release an interactive map of Mars. Check it out HERE.

Interactive Earth and Mars down, 7 more planets to go. I for one give Google about 6 years to get the rest of them.