GP makes a good point. Google is a de facto monopoly, no less than Microsoft was. Even if you stipulate that Google got there through nicer tactics than Microsoft, the end result is a similar huge concentration of power. We can laugh at old school publishers feeling disoriented. We can feel comfortable that Google won't use their power for "evil". Maybe that's a safe assumption for the near future.

I think ultimately the most reassuring thing isn't Google's intentions, but the inevitability that they too will hand the reins to someone new. Maybe Amazon. Maybe a company that most of us have never heard of yet. (And during that transition the world will become more uncertain and more interesting again, for awhile.) But meanwhile Google has a huge amount of power, and healthy skepticism is fair.