Google tops the headlines again with their refusal to appease the US Government's request for their search logs. I think it's obvious why Google would deny such a request as it clearly raises some privacy issues that would likely impact their user-base. What is not so obvious is why the other engines (AOL, MSN & Yahoo!) so easily gave up their search log data. Are AOL, MSN and Yahoo! not afraid to scare off their users? I think that the users of these engines have a right to be scared. All of the major search engines are offering more and more services. Many of these services require some sort of registration. One would have to believe that ALL of the major engines are able to track the search behavior for logged-in users. Maybe the information that the Government is currently asking for does not pose any serious privacy concerns, but it certainly does open the door for more PII (Personally Identifiable Information) to be disseminated in the future. So it appears that this yet another example where Google takes the moral high road and chooses to do things right and it will no doubt cement the loyalty of their users.