In February, Google found itself in an unusual position: out of step with its customers. When the company launched Buzz, its social networking service, it faced a barrage of criticism from users who objected to the way it had automatically enrolled users of Gmail, its e-mail service, into the new offering. Their gripe was that it would make their private contacts public. Google was stung by the uproar but put it down to a mistake made in good faith and quickly made Buzz optional.

For a company that ranked second in a recent survey by Fortune magazine of the world's most admired companies, getting it so wrong with users was uncomfortable. It also begged the question of how a company known for being so intuitively connected to consumers could get it so wrong.

Google had established its reputation on the back of the functionality and ease of use of its search engine, a stream of popular innovations and a declared commitment to free access to information and the democratisation of the internet. Estimates vary wildly, but in 2009 one research agency, Millward Brown Optimor, valued the Google brand at $100bn.