Is Google becoming evil?

With Google, it was love at first sight. I loved the simplicity of the layout and the effectiveness of the search engine. But mostly, I loved how two graduate students created a better search engine than companies like Yahoo and Altavista who had legions of programmers. And I loved how they were focused on only one element of the internet: searching. Because better searching made it easier to find information and finding information is, at least I think, the essence of the Internet. In the beginning, Google seemed to be interested more in the merits of innovation rather than the monetary payout the innovation would have. Now as they conquer more and more online services, I'm beginning to wonder if they still hold the same values.

After I discovered how awesome Google searching was, I looked forward to the unveiling of each new service. And I would abandon whatever services I used before:
1. Searching: I used to use Altavista.
2. Language Translation: Babelfish. This was particularly useful when I took Spanish in college and high school.
3. Price Comparison: Pricewatch or PriceGrabber.
4. Email: Yahoo
5. Maps and Driving Directions: Mapquest
And now there is talk that Google is expanding their payment service. Could Paypal be the next on my list?

Now I didn't just switch because these new services had the new Google name, but because they are arguably the best services out there. Google Maps has amazing features that make it the best map program that you can use for free (there are better ones that you have to pay hundreds of dollars for), and Gmail offers the greatest email storage (currently over 2.3 GB). So what exactly is my problem?

I'm not sure if I can accurately explain it but I'm just not comfortable with Google trampling their competition when their competition is a smaller company who has only one service to offer. I'm not so worried about Yahoo. Yahoo has so many other features that losing email customers might barely hurt them. But that isn't the story with Mapquest or Paypal. If they lose the market to Google, well they lose their entire market. Google, which is now a behemoth, could potentially shut down these companies.

But at the same time, I can't really blame Google. They make the best products out there right now in the fields in which they choose to make products. The question is, will they continue to enter new arenas? What company will suddenly go head to head with Google? Will it be eBay? Will it be Blogger? And if they continue this, are their intentions good or bad? Are they simply trying to create the best services out there for the sake of innovation? Does the answer to this last question even matter? Is it bad to attempt to monopolize Internet services, even if their intentions are good?

Anyway, I'm not sure if I made my point clear. Competition is good. Competition also fosters innovation. If Google crushes all their competition because they came up with something more innovative every time, is it even possible for a company to compete with Google? Will innovation ultimately die because Google will be the only company in the end? Of course, this is the extreme scenario, but for argument's sake, I wonder.

Maybe I'll start using Mapquest again just to be safe...