I, Cringely (found via Futurismic)

has another wacko theory about the future of tech: Google will steal a

page from the Wal-Mart playbook, effectively leveraging its existing

cash on hand to buy out the entire competitive infrastructure of its

industry, namely the Internet. In other words, Google will become the

Internet, in a very real sense.

The plan goes like this: Google is designing hyperefficient mobile data

centers that fit into shipping containers, and it is buying copious

amounts of dark fiber. Put the two together and you have a duplicate,

super-boosted Internet running parallel to, above, and within the

current Net, with Google tech baked in. Suddenly, Google search is

untouchably faster than any other search, GMail is faster than any

other Web mail (and any conventional mail that leaves the corporate

network), and GoogleBase is faster than Craigslist.

Google takes over the world, and nobody cares because the performance

gains are so incredible that the takeover feels like an improvement.

Let’s hope the “Don’t be evil” slogan wasn’t just a marketing theme.