Google's announcement of its Public DNS means more than just sudden death for Open DNS, a decent company but not one that has the billion dollar resources to compete with Google. Because this isn't just about another company winning and another losing. It's about Google's increasingly data hungry drive to control everything.

In the Tech Crunch comments section you can see a claim being made that Google will not retain the information, but does anyone seriously believe that? A major reason why Google would launch a program like this isn't just about control, though I'm sure that's on the table, but data. Google's core finances still depend on ads and Google has been obsessive about polishing its ad serving approaches, from using email keywords in Gmail to at one point proposing using a microphone to eavesdrop on TV shows that users are watching in the background. Given access to the DNS of a hundred million users, there's no doubt that unlike Open DNS, Google will put them to all sorts of uses.

But as defenders of Google point out, using Google DNS like every other product that Google turns out is optional. And they're right to a degree, but so was buying from a trust. There's a basic problem when a company gets too powerful, whether it does so by fair means or foul. A democratically elected tyrant, isn't that much better than one who comes to power in a coup. And while Google looks good compared to Apple, Apple is satisfied with controlling their own products, Google seems fixated on controlling you.