Google's diversity causing it antitrust trouble

Google's stated goal is to have an index of all the world's information. It started with the Web, where the information it obtained allowed it to build a hugely successful search service. From there, the company branched out, both by internal development and acquisition; books got scanned, e-mail and documents hosted, and a variety of products, such as the Android operating system, appear to have been developed simply as a way of encouraging users to rely on other Google services. Now, even as the company is killing some of these non-core products due to the tough economic times, its diversity is causing it more trouble than it may be worth, as antitrust worries appear to be accompanying the company's every move. In a lot of ways, Google is a victim both of its own success in search and its strategic approach to new markets. The company seemed to have services (rumored, in beta, and otherwise) in just about every online market imaginable, including some odd fits, like virtual worlds. The idea, presumably, was that it wanted to be ready to move in case any of these areas took off. Instead, the company is now finding itself facing resistance to just about everything it does.