Every single Google service is brilliant and very useful, but when they connect you get a very powerful system, that could be too much good. Should we start to watch out?

The other day our son turned 7 months and it probably won’t be long until I have to help him set up his first Gmail account – it’s a father-son thing.

It won’t take long to set up the account, a few basic information about the kid and he is ready to roll.

In time more stuff will be added to his profile.

With tears in my eyes I will proudly say to him: Welcome to Google, son, from now on, most of what you’ll be doing on the computer, will be registered by one company.

It will be like his baptism – He’ll be a part of a huge and abstract universe, with some kind of obligations, I’m just not sure which.

While filling out the online Gmail form it’ll strike me, is this the right thing to do. Isn’t there an alternative instead of making his life public to the search engine?

But it’s so easy. It works, you get a lot of really clever and free services – and you just need to log in once and one place.

One thing is, that Google is already his start page and key to the internet and it searches your email and blog.

Google also remembers which video my son will watch on YouTube, which he’ll probably watch more than television.

This is probably just the beginning.

It won’t take long before my entire family will be equipped with cell phones embedded with GPS chips, so I can see on Google Earth or Ocean where they are.

The next step will probably be Google Health, where, like Microsoft’s “health vault”, all the data about our health will be collected. Everything from the doctor and hospital’s journals to the daily rating from the bathroom scale and data from my jogging watch.

It can even be more detailed, if you chose to get your DNA decoded by companies such as 23andme.

One of 23andme’s directors is married to Google-founder Sergey Brin and Google is one of the major investors in the company.

They will decode your DNA for $1000.

It isn’t unrealistic that DNA analysis will be the standard tool for doctors, like X-rays and blood samples are today.

But it will require a lot of computer power to store and manage all that data, and computer power is what Google have.

Everybody expects that Google will be one of the select few, who will offer “cloud computing“, where you can buy capacity of Google’s huge computer farms.

Soon you’ll buy computer power, just like you buy electricity today.

All we need is a 3D online-universe, that combines fictional and user-created environments (like Second Life) with real geographical data from Google Earth.

It will be connected with our cell phones, so that you can walk around in the physical world, while having a close encounter with a parallel and virtual universe, that combines real buildings and persons with avatars and 3D models.

Each one of Google’s services are really useful, but when you connect them you get a system, that is both powerful and extensive, but is it too much to be good?

As Google says: “Do no evil”. I think it’s important that we help Google maintain that motto.

Do you think Google can get too powerful?

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Applications for the Apple iPhone aren’t taking up the internet bandwidth and space. Actually only one company have developed an VoIP (Voice over IP) application, the Israeli company fring.

If you haven’t heard about fring, then perhaps you know one of the people behind it – Avi Schechter. He was one of the founder of the once very popular chat-program ICQ. I still remember my ICQ number 7914159, which was stolen by a hacker some time ago.

The idea behind fring is free access to your favourite instant messaging service like Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk or AIM. You can also connect to your Skype contacts and use twitter.

It requires some kind of high-speed connection. That can be either 3G, Wi-Fi or GPRS. I wouldn’t recommend the latter though.

Since you often will use 3G (or GPRS) I would recommend a free data-plan. fring might be free, but the data you are transmitting when talking through Skype isn’t. You’ll still get a bill from your service provider.

I’ve been a happy fring-user for almost a year now. I have it on my Nokia N80IE and Nokia E51. If I had an Apple iPhone I would install it on it too.

As I mentioned fring is the first company to launch a VoIP application for iPhone. You can download fring for iPhone here.

Jonathan MacDonald has written a guide to installing fring on iPhone.

So do you fring while you Skype? Or is it the other way around?

According to experts the use of online advertising will increase by 23% in 2008. This is more than 40 billion dollars, but a riot might be around the corner.

Adsense has made Google one most valuable companies in the world and the ads on social networks such as Facebook help those companies make billions each year.

But could all this be in danger?

A new analysis from Deloitte indicates that more and more users are tired of online ads.

Are you one of them? Do you find online ads more annoying than ads in newspapers and television?

A good example is the latest protest against Facebook’s Beacon system. When Facebook users shopped online, Beacon told friends and businesses what they looked at or bought. The latest statistics show that users doesn’t spend as much time on Facebook and MySpace as they used to.

This tendency might turn Facebook and other social network’s ad-goldmine into a nightmare. There might be some light ahead though. According to the Media Summit 2008 in New York, there are other ways of targeting consumers online, but it requires courage.

As you probably already know blogs can circumvent this. If a blog recommends a product on Amazon, you usually don’t consider that advertising. If you let a blogger tell you what they think about a product, it will remove the suspicion towards a product.

But will companies entrust their brand to the users? Brands like Pepsi and Coca-Cola spent billions of dollars building a strong brand. Will they allow users to play with their brand and values on YouTube?

The companies will have to redefine their brand and if they want the users to be engaged, they have to let go of their perfect image. This transformation requires a lot of confidence and I’m certain some companies doesn’t want to risk it.

Sources: Media Summit 2008, Beacon protests, Deloitte Report

Last week’s interview with the sword swinging and keyboard wearing Lisa Bettany was a huge success. Especially because of Lisa’s use of twitter, flickr and Pownce.

This week it’s Editor-in-Chief of Mashable, MindSay co-founder and ReadBurner owner Adam Ostrow’s turn to show us his desktop. Many of you probably know Adam from Mashable and MindSay (one of the oldest blogging communities), but from today we’ll also know Adam as the one of the guys, who acquired ReadBurner.

In January 2008 Alexander Marktl launched Readburner as a hobby project, but within a month is became a very popular service. So popular that it took more time than Alexander Marktl had. Luckily for ReadBurner and for us Adam Ostrow, Drew Olanoff and Eric Kerr recently bought it and is making sure the service lives on. So what is ReadBurner?

ReadBurner collects the shared items from each feed. It’s similar to Techmeme and heavily inspired RSSmeme. It has a lot of potential. If they can get the attention and coverage, it’ll beat the current FriendFeed hype. Adam, if you need my help promoting ReadBurner, you can count on me.

The interview is a little taste of what season 3 of Show Me Your Desktop will offer.

What is your background picture?

Hilary Duff. Not like Lizzie McGuire Hilary Duff, that’d be kind of sketchy. But she’s all grown up and looks amazing.

Why did you choose that picture?

In addition to being really hot, Hilary seems like a breath of fresh air compared to a lot of the celebrities out there. She’s involved in a lot of charities and actually does stuff with them like handing out meals in New Orleans after Katrina. I shouldn’t know all this, but I spend almost as much time on WeSmirch as I do TechMeme, so, I do.

If you have a personal and a work computer, which program do you use the most on your personal computer?

They are one and the same. Sadly, I’d say when I’m not working, the program I use the most is still Firefox. I spend too much time on the Web.

Which program do you use the most on your work computer?

Firefox and Trillian are tied, since they are both open all day. Within Firefox, the programs I use the most are Gmail and Google Reader. Those two are also always on.

Which web browser is your preferred browser?

Firefox 2.0. I still do use IE on occasion though for quality assurance on my various side projects. It’s amazing how different the same site can look on different browsers. Usually, it’s not pretty.

Why is it your favourite browser?

Initially, it was the tabbed browsing, but IE has that now too. It also used to run a lot faster than IE, but that advantage also seems to be fading with all of the memory leaks. I guess Firefox won me over originally with their innovations, and much like Google versus Yahoo or Ask, it would take a lot more than a few shiny new features to get me to switch. I’d need to see something truly radical and innovative.

What is your favourite program and why?

My favorite has to be Google Reader. Pulling together all of the sites you read in one location is such an amazing time saver, and of the RSS readers I’ve tried, Google Reader does the best job of it. As someone that consumes and creates news for a living, it’s absolutely the most important tool that I’ve got.

Which program is the worst?

Adobe Reader. Loading up PDFs grinds my computer to an absolute halt. Note to PR people: don’t send us PDFs!!!

Do you have any tips and tricks on how to get the most out of your computer or blog?

To get the most out of your computer, you need to constantly delete the crap you don’t use. Similar to how a messy house can create a lethargic environment, a desktop cluttered with worthless apps can be rather de-motivating.

As for getting the most of your blog, I think one of the most important things you can do is respond to as many of your commenters as possible. Not only are these people your most important readers, but if you write for a more newsy and commercial blog like Mashable, I’ve found it’s the best way for people to get to know who you are. Similar to newspapers, with the exception of a few bloggers, almost no one remembers the bylines, so even if you write for one of the big sites, it’s up to you to build your personal brand.

From a content perspective, one tip I can offer is to constantly vary the format and length of your posts. I know I can’t stand reading big blocks of text, and know most other people don’t enjoy it either. So experiment with different image placements, shorter paragraphs, and block quotes.

Thank you very much Adam and the best of luck with ReadBurner. It’s a great service and I’m certain you will succeed. Oh and if you ever need my services on Mashable…Not that I’m waiting or anything. (Updating Gmail every two minutes and redirecting Skype, IM and twitter to my cell)