I love some of the google's products, Chrome being one of them. Tried to return to Firefox or Safari but failed. Once you taste chrome, you may not want to return.

This is cheap shot to Google. Google is miles ahead in terms of search engine, browser and recently email service (Gmail). Microsoft doing this scroogle thing out of frustration.

LOL @ bing.

Microsoft hates any tech or computer based company that threatens its domination: Fact.

and google gave the NSA nothing right? funny to single one company out from all the rest. makes it easy to spot your true colors.

"

Initial public statements

Corporate executives of several companies identified in the leaked documents told The Guardian that they had no knowledge of the PRISM program in particular and also denied making information available to the government on the scale alleged by news reports.^[4][110] Statements of several of the companies named in the leaked documents were reported by TechCrunch and The Washington Post as follows:^[111][112]

• Microsoft: "We provide customer data only when we receive a legally binding order or subpoena to do so, and never on a voluntary basis. In addition we only ever comply with orders for requests about specific accounts or identifiers. If the government has a broader voluntary national security program to gather customer data we don't participate in it."^[111][113]
• Yahoo!: "Yahoo! takes users' privacy very seriously. We do not provide the government with direct access to our servers, systems, or network."^[111] "Of the hundreds of millions of users we serve, an infinitesimal percentage will ever be the subject of a government data collection directive."^[112]
• Facebook: "We do not provide any government organization with direct access to Facebook servers. When Facebook is asked for data or information about specific individuals, we carefully scrutinize any such request for compliance with all applicable laws, and provide information only to the extent required by law."^[111]
• Google: "Google cares deeply about the security of our users' data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully. From time to time, people allege that we have created a government ‘back door' into our systems, but Google does not have a backdoor for the government to access private user data."^[111] "[A]ny suggestion that Google is disclosing information about our users' Internet activity on such a scale is completely false."^[112]
• Apple: "We have never heard of PRISM. We do not provide any government agency with direct access to our servers, and any government agency requesting customer data must get a court order."^[114]
• Dropbox: "We've seen reports that Dropbox might be asked to participate in a government program called PRISM. We are not part of any such program and remain committed to protecting our users' privacy."^[111]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRISM_%28surveillance_program%29#Companies

and I am sure many more companies were involved. from around the world as the NSA isn't the only spy agency, and anything sent over any wire or even wireless communication is to easy to spy on not to do it, also governments of the world would not buy your data, why buy when you can legislate to forc companies to give data. or when you can hack into the main pipe lines between big companies such as google and yahoo. why spend government money for what you can get for free. Sad, but its the truth. But this is aside from google selling your data to other companies.

Article on NSA hacking google and yahoo

http://nypost.com/2013/11/21/ronald-reagans-role-in-the-nsas-hack-of-google-yahoo/

So, where's the connection between brand value and sympathy?

I dont know, sony and MS still seem able to partner up on some things and get along. of course i think sony and google do too. where is apple in all of this? Ithink the next two big evil companies will be google and samsung. just give it a few more years. as google remains atop of many things they will abuse their power just as the other companies before them. its a natural thing for big powerful companies (countries, or people too) to abuse that power.

LOL The reason Microsoft is in the gaming industry is because of Sony. Sony didn't want to partner with them when it came to gaming. Outside of gaming they seem to be fine even though they are still rivals elsewhere. Google is going to break into hardware, just watch and it will be Microsoft, Apple, Google and others taking over not just internet, but cellphones and televisions. Sony really needs to work on my OS because if that happens they are in trouble.

I agree. that was my point. they are all the same. google is not better than the rest. but they get their revenue in a unique way from the rest. they dont want your money, they want your info. I think samsung is the one to really watch out for, all these other hardware companies just contract out all their hardware. Samsung does their own (as far as i know i dont know a ton about it). But when samsung get their own OS going it will be a game changer. I dont see apple going far, i think they have peaked in their control and will continue to decline as they get out innovated by companies that have more varied models. I think Apple will go back to being a leader in the niche market, while Samsung, Google, and microsoft battle it out every where else. Amazon may be in the mix somewhere there too, but I feel they are more likey to compete with wal mart, kmart, and grocery stores thanin tech. it all interest me, and while I usually use MS products over the rest, i still use products from every company listed every day (except apple i only use those when i am around someone with an iphone)

Well, a company that shipped all operating systems since Windows 95 with a secret _NSAKEY is surely to be trusted.