Google Stakes Out Its Future. Resistance Is Futile.

Organizing your desktop is not enough for Google. Now it wants to organize your DNA.

The internet giant has provided $3.9 million in debt financing--loose change for Google, really--to support a genetics venture recently started by Google founder Sergey Brin's new bride, Anne Wojcicki.

And the capital appears to be more than just Google's wedding present to the happy couple. The Financial Times reports that Google C.E.O. Eric Schmidt said he believes that personal information will be key to his company's expansion.

Wojcicki's new company, 23andme, aims to "develop new ways to help you make sense of your own genetic information."

According to the company's website, it will build on recent advances in DNA analysis to enable people to access individual genetic information, then put educational and scientific resources towards allowing people to understand it.

Step two is to use that information to build a common, standardized genetic resource that would have the potential to accelerate drug discovery and advances in personalized medicine.

So how personal is too personal? Google has proven its ability to launch innovative applications that don't take long to become alarmingly pervasive in daily life, and dark humor already swirls about a future America dominated by an omnipotent Google.

Most users remain skittish at any whiff of personal profiling--but who knows, maybe eventually we'll all be using Google Desktop for our brains.

by Liz Gunnison

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