How can you hate Google? I guess if you’re Yahoo!, MSN, and the millions of sites that can’t get good ranking, it’s pretty easy!

An interesting clip in BusinessWeek caught my eye this morning. The piece was titled “Ganging up on Google.” “Aw, poor Google,” I thought to myself, “who’d gang up on them?” They’re the company everyone seems to love to hate these days, unless of course, your site ranks well for targeted phrases and you own a little boatload of their stock.

So the latest fray was over Joan Miro’s estate and Google’s infringement on the use of Miro’s art in their logo, in an attempt to pay homage to the Spanish surrealist on his birthday, the 20th of April. Nice idea, Google doing these little images. I always like to point them out and show off a bit to my less savvy friends. (“Show off when possible because the times are few and far between.” My own quote, which you may feel free to use with credit to me, of course.)

Back to the point…why on earth do we spend so much time fretting over Google? We love them. We hate them. We want them replaced by another bigger, better search engine! We spend all this time because they are a clear leader and have been for sometime now. Their stock is up, now getting nods from naysayers like Merrill Lynch. Their search results are still the best around and they are still the search engine of choice by a humungous amount of users. It almost seems like no other search engine can catch up. And who wants to report on only good news…there MUST be something that they are doing wrong!

BusinessWeek noted that “Yahoo! and Microsoft have long endeavored to erode Google’s lead in Web search. But now Google faces a new wave of restive rivals, curious government officials, and angry human-rights advocates.”

Sheesh, sounds serious.

Google has become the Britney Spears of the Internet. We can’t help but look in fascination while news reports repeatedly show her letting the kid drive the car. (Not Kevin, the baby Sean Preston). She dominated the pop music scene for years. Most people loved her. Many couldn’t stand her. It seemed like she’d never fade. Yet even Britney is no longer the biggest attraction and eventually everyone and everything that was once number one, becomes number two, or is eventually replaced altogether. Like Britney. Someday, like Google. Remember Netscape? That’s life and progress; out with the old, in with the new.

Rivals like MSN and Yahoo! should spend more time working on building their databases, improving their algorithms and providing greater value to their viewers. Business writers and leaders should encourage them to do the same. It only helps us all to have more competition in this area, as that means better search options.

In the meantime, like many smart business people, I’m going to work hard to ensure that we give Google what they want – good, relevant content – and reap the rewards of their success: for us and our clients. I will keep my eye out for the juicy stories though, continuing to gather news and information from Google, along with Ask.com.