I enjoy rumor and speculation as much as anybody, but I like to see it justified a little better than in this far-reaching forecast of a Google browser and a Google PC. The premise being that Google is out to eclipse Microsoft (nothing new there, and a worthy foundation for speculation), the entry argues that a Google PC running Linux and shipping with Gmail would be a viable product because "no one really needs Outlook." Yikes, tell that to millions of corporate workers and their companies' IT departments, a major market for Microsoft. The entry further argues that the Google Store, which sells capricious Google-branded merchandise is the company's way of practicing for direct distribution of PCs—an entirely different e-commerce venture.

Any kind of new Google hardware seems like an outside bet. Google is not exactly rocking the boat with its enterprise search boxes. Google owns one particular space and moment in the online experience: matching buyer and seller over keywords. The new CPM venture, which is unrelated to search, is a major departure from Google's core mission. But if that core mission has expanded, Google is still primarily in the advertising business. Look for its dominating ambitions to be expressed in the fields of behavioral targeting and pushing into the local frontier.