With Obama win, Google emerges as a D.C. player

13.11.2008
Oh, to be right now. Its CEO, , is advising on economic policy. And who can forget the debate in Congress over Net neutrality and Google's battle with the telecoms?

Certainly not Schmidt, whose pro-neutrality stance had a Verizon executive calling for an end to "Google's 'Free Lunch.' "

Schmidt may soon be eating his lunches for free at the White House -- and with a new president who also supports Net neutrality. How delicious is that?

To help celebrate what could finally be victory over the telecoms on Net neutrality -- -- Google this week bumped up its bandwidth use by unveiling

It gets even better for Google. Obama with the ability to influence, if not control, the IT direction of the vast federal workforce and all it touches.

What if that new CTO insists on buying open source software as a way to save money? It's a prospect raised by , president of The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, a non-partisan think tank. Obama's call for an open and transparent government, "could mean a mandate for open source or a mandate for open standards," Atkinson said.