Google

Your DNA falls into the realm of "the world's information," and it seems that Google (GOOG), as part of its corporate mission, is making a play to organize that, too. The Internet giant received heavy press in 2007 when it invested at least $4.4 million (BusinessWeek.com, 11/29/07) in a genetic screening company, 23andMe, that was started by Anne Wojcicki, the wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and her business partner.

The federal office in charge of creating a national network of electronic health records plans to integrate the system with the health care databases that Google and Microsoft launched last year, on which individuals can store their health records, a top official with the Health and Human Services Department said.

In John Varley's upcoming scifi novel Rolling Thunder, everyone has a brain implant that lets them google information constantly. And many futurists are saying this technology will become a reality long before we colonize Mars. The question isn't whether we'll have google brain implants (or the futuristic search engine equivalent), but how we'll handle them. What exactly would be the plusses and minuses of being able to google information instantaneously in your head, without anybody knowing you're doing it?

When a Microsoft Corp. patent application for a method of sorting brain waves surfaced late last year, it drew quips that the company now plans to read PC users' minds, in addition to selling them software. But the patent is only a starting point for a broader and more benign investigation into the subconscious, according to Microsoft researcher Desney Tan.

ess than two weeks after Microsoft Corp. announced plans to support online personal health information records, Google unveiled plans to follow suit. Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products and user experience, said Wednesday here at the Web 2.0 Summit that Google plans to support the "storage and movement" of people's health records.

The world's top search engine Google has developed a series of 'Gphones', offering mobile services, such as search, e-mail, and maps.

According to consumer watchdog Privacy International, Google conducts "comprehensive surveillance" and embodies an "entrenched hostility to privacy." Microsoft, though a little less invasive, is still Microsoft. What do they have in common? Both want you to trust them with your DNA.