Fine if google starts doing it, its what any other company in the world does, so kudos for google after 10 y old they will(if they ever do) start getting integrated into this world.
As it seems i'm the first or one of the firsts commenter about this i'll write about my needs, lets see if the exstandfordians read it and act.

When i first started using google infraestructure never thought i'd have to install spyware(rlz, iid, unique id's, cookie id's, googleupdaters.exe's etc,...not to mention click trackings parameters...) to fully use upcoming google services, no official offline installer for Chrome.. google earth and not official nor unofficial offline installer for Gears. Now i cannot say i trust the google company.

During 3 years or more we have been requesting features for existing products through this blog and googlesystem.blogspot.com, and none of the hundreds of requests by users have been added.
So i dont believe google will start listening its users, because i bet the very first step for them would be having credibility, then somethin' like asking.

Sounds like the kiss of death to me. If the audience knew what they wanted they'd have already done it. Genius is giving the audience what they didn't know they wanted. I'd prefer a bunch of engineers in a huddle any day!

Agreed: it's the first tiny step towards the kiss of death.

Kind of related to how Apple languished during the Sculley/Spindler/Amelio years, then prospered again after engineer Steve Jobs took the helm.

> Genius is giving the audience what they didn't know they wanted.

Along those lines, Henry Ford is reputed to have said that he never asked his customers what they wanted, because "If I'd asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse".

WikiQuote: Henry Ford
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Henry_Ford

Both approaches are quite good, compensating to each other.