Has Google Peaked?

Lately not much good or useful has come from Google and if you look at their stock price I think investors have figured that out as well.

My latest two gripes (which gives some truth to the saying that Google is run by engineers and Yahoo! [was] run by a Hollywood CEO):

• The 'let your friends know what you are reading & what they are reading' feature over at Google Reader. Not everyone in my GMail address book is a 'friend' nor do I necessarily want actual friends to know what I am reading. Isn't this similar to Facebook's latest misstep (where everyone got to know what you had recently bought)?
• The subtle change in web searches at Google proper to emphasize the new over the well linked - case in point: I wanted to know where the phrase '(my Pokemons) let me show you them' came from. Instead of a link to perhaps the first posting of said phrase I got back (at least) 3 pages of bloggers who used the quote or a variant in their blog. If I wanted that I would have searched via Technorati! Not necessarily what Google wants to hear but isn't that what their 'news' tab was for?

OK, end of rant for the day. Enjoy the lack of rain while you can.