Reid on Google's World Domination

1. How are you like Dan Firger (even remotely)?
I let google in on a significant portion of my life. I have several gmail accounts, I make use of google docs for both class assignments as well as projects with my friends. I even use google calender to sort out long range planning (I often forget to check it, but it still has all of my classes and major trips on it). Gchat, and Google Wave are part of my media sharing experience, even blogger is synced up so that once I sign into gmail I don't have to sign in here. Google knows more about my daily schedule, contact with friends, and projects than even my roommates do most of the time.

2. What do you know about Google's advertising strategies? What does Google own; how is the company going to get bigger, and HOW is Google "Aptocratic" ?
Advertising strategies, I know that they have text recognition software that scans every email and search option I use, then puts up what are considered 'related' ads on the side of the page. The only reason this doesn't bug most folks is that google has mastered the art of the subtle ad. They are just simple plain text, no flashers, no animations, just there. And while one for one you might get paid more for a colored pop up than a black and white text box, in the quantities that google uses they more than make up the difference.
As far as what they own, I'm really not sure. I know they own youtube, and have been struggling for years to make it profitable, see the recent appearance of targeted adds and on-video pop ups that even showed up on some of the class mash ups. Past that I don't know of any companies aside from those under the actual Google label they own.

3. Yahoo! used to be one of Google's BIGGEST competitors...what happened to Yahoo!??
Yahoo committed the biggest sin any tech company can. They stagnated. Back in the early and even mid 2000's Yahoo was the internet Giant. They had all the search tech, social media, even catchy TV commercials. They were also rated as one of the best companies to work at. But then they got complacent at the top. They dropped more money into advertising than research, and Google snuck up and stole the crown.