As it turns out technology companies are a lot like media superstars, or maybe it is just a truism that nothing can sustain popularity at the highest level, or maybe it is as simple as power corrupts. I don’t know, but I do know that what Google is going through right now is very similar to the once beloved media darling that the public has turned on.

And the tide is turning against Google on a number of fronts.

First there was the whole Autolink controversy, I still say it is a bad move for the precedent it sets as well as the ill will that it is creating. And the collective good will of Netizens is really the only thing that keeps Google afloat, I mean if a search engine searches the web and nobody uses it is it really a search engine?

Add to that ill will a growing numbers of webmaster that have had bad experiences with Google’s Ad Sense program. A number of the webmaster that have received “the notice” swear that they did nothing against the TOS but were banned anyway. I have no idea if that is true or not – but again, ill will. And then there is the coming competition to Ad Sense. Possibly the biggest problem with adsense is that it just doesn’t work for a number of webmasters. Competition is good so maybe Yahoo’s entry ( and maybe even M$’s ) in the field will help.

And now there is a huge stink about Google News. It looks like they have removed the Nazi “news source” but the critics are now demanding more transparency ( not one of Google’s long suits ) and want to know what sites Google uses for sources.

Growing pains.

And one of the most alarming trends is the shirking percentage of users that use Google for their search results – its down to like 35% with Yahoo closing at 32%.

And that’s a shame because at it’s core Google is a great search engine. Really the best available solution we have today for finding semi-relevant web pages on the interweb.