ANTenna Blog -- The rANT

When you rank at the top of the most desired employer list year after year, your stock price is perpetually flying high, and even the naysayers blunt their criticisms with homage to your "smarts," some cranial swelling is inevitable. Though premature to cite historical precedents of hubris run amok, it's nonetheless high time to ask: who the #@*&$%! do these Googler's think they are?

In the beginning, there was a search engine. And it was a good search engine. Remember that? It was simple. It wasn't in Beta. But then came Gmail and Google Docs and Chrome and Google Calendar and YouTube and Google Maps and AdSense and Google Reader and Orkut and Google Talk and Picasa and Google Toolbars and Blogger and Google Apps and that's -- literally -- not even the half of it. Organizing the world's information. HA! More like organizing the world -- period.

With every new rollout, Google's reach (or over reach) expands like the rising batter of Marissa Mayer's cupcakes. Chrome is merely the latest example of Google's unquenchable thirst for more (and more) and utter lack of self-doubt.

Take over the Web, dominate the desktop, become the browser of choice? That's not enough. Why not dabble in day care? Hey, with that 20 percent time, a few Googler's could probably put their heads together and fix that whole global warming thing -- after all, it's just algebra! And if it doesn't work -- what the heck, it's just a beta.

With all this Googling of the latest Google news from the Googleplex about the inescapable Googleness of the moment, The rANT is officially overGoogled, but not quite over Google.