If you didn't already read about Troogle, you have not been a victim of the most recent succesful hoax in the internet. Troogle is "finding the truth about Google, and the general misconception public has about its ideals and goals". The blog started in February, reporting different levels of "evil" of the corporation that entertains "Dont' be evil" as their slogan.

Four students from Amsterdam have done a good job in preparing for their study project. Their task was to create a buzz, and that they did. This fictional blog, and related website www.thenewwebproject.com has received over 20.000 hits, plus a number of tweets and emails discussing the evil of Google.

What is more interesting, in my opinion, is that once the blog turned out to be a hoax, everyone's laughing lightly and moving on to the next buzz. No one is stopping to question Google's real motive for owning all of the digital content in the world, all of our images, videos, emails, preferencies and user behaviors forever and ever. For example, here are a couple of quotes from wikipedia on Android:

"Android had been criticized for not being all open-source software despite what was announced by Google. Parts of the SDK are proprietary and closed source and some believe this is so that Google can control the platform.^{[25][26][27][28]} The Android Software Development Kit License Agreement^[29] states that:

3.2 You agree that Google (or Google's licensors) own all legal right, title and interest in and to the SDK, including any intellectual property rights which subsist in the SDK. Use, reproduction and distribution of components of the SDK licensed under an open source software license are governed solely by the terms of that open source software license and not by this License Agreement. Until the SDK is released under an open source license, you may not extract the source code or create a derivative work of the SDK."


Topic, Dalibor (2007-11-14). "What Does Android Mean for Sun’s OpenJDK". http://ianskerrett.wordpress.com/2007/11/13/what-does-android-mean-for-suns-openjdk/. Retrieved on 2008-02-03. "Android is proprietary, despite being marketed as open source. Android has a compatibility pledge, signed and kept behind closed doors. Android has no governance model, nor any indication there will be one. Android has no spec, and the license prohibits alternative implementations, as that’s not a use licensed by Google in the SDK license. Android is completely controlled by Google, and Google reserves the right to kill off competitors applications if they hurt Google financially, etc. It’s only as open as it is in Google’s financial interest to allow openness, by design." 

It's funny that anyone who would question Google's motive, is labeled as a conspiracy theorist. Smart people are thinking 'What would Google do' in every turn, and copying their way of giving out things for free without spending time to think what is behind the "free" stuff. It seems that there can only be one truth at a time. Depending on the time and age, the one and only truth is IBM, Microsoft or Google. That is the real hoax.