Note to Google: Those in glass houses should not throw stones

Google, in making a high-profile complaint to the Justice Department and State Attorney Generals, about Microsoft's latest operating system Vista, appears to be naively unaware of its own antitrust vulnerabilities in its pending Google-DoubleClick antitrust review at the FTC.

• The NY Times made Google's complaint a top right cover story on Sunday and the Wall Street Journal featured Google's complaint as its top business story Monday.  

It has always been unwise for those in "glass houses to throw stones."

• It is exceptionally unwise to "throw stones" at the people watching your "glass house" parade float by as it winds its way through the multi-month Washington/FTC antitrust process. 

Obviously, Google is over-confident and maybe clueless that it has no antitrust vulnerabilities of its own in its pending Google-DoubleClick merger.

• This is a grave mistake.
• Any sophisticated Washington or antitrust observer that reads the Supplemental Complaint Filing by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), will see that the Google-DoubleClick merger raises serious competitive issues.

Moreover, any close review of EPIC's "Additional Requests for Relief" on pages 19-21 should give Google investors and supporters great pause.

• If the FTC takes privacy and privacy/competitive issues seriously, which they likely will because it cuts to the core of the FTC's mission, Google faces some real and serious threats to their current business model and monetization competitive advantage.
• Any one of the 13 EPIC requests for relief could cause business serious problems going forward for Google.  
• Investors and other observers that take their cue from "what me worry" Google CEO Eric Schmidt -- do so at their own peril.