Google's resistant stance in the face of a government subpoena is admirable, though I suspect much of Google's attitude is about maintaining public trust. The government is not asking for personally identifying information, and that's probably why Microsoft, AOL, and Yahoo! complied so readily with its info-gathering mandate. At stake is an online pornography act that has been refuted once by the Supreme Court. The Bush administration is building its case based partly on analysis of amassed search-query data. Google collects this data; there is no hiding that fact which has made some critics nervous from the start. In light of the persistent edginess of privacy alarmists, I imagine Google does not want headlines blaring that the company capitulated by turning over information (anonymous or not) about user queries.

SEW is running an excellent roundup of the case and its documents.