Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) shares closed the trading day at $402.92, a decrease of $3.95 or 0.97% from Tuesday's close. While the Dow flirted with its record high over over 11,700 years ago amid the dot-com boom, the average closed at 11,689.24 as the magical barrier of the highest-ever DJIA close seemed to loom near on the horizon.

Google explained in part today why it handles content the way it does in response to the bare-knuckled fight it has had in the last few weeks with the Belgian government over Google News' aggregation of content from online Belgian newspapers. While respecting copyrights, Google is going to see this kind of tussle creep up again and again as every Google-fearing entity wants the Internet search leader to pony up for aggregating snippets of content to make it easier for customers to find information.

While I still don't get why copyright holders resist Google for making their presence more well-known on the Internet, these kinds of actions surely will not cease. Google is making too much money to be ignored, so "slay the giant" seems to be the theme in many cases.

But what if Microsoft and Yahoo! merge -- what would that mean for Google? For one, Google would still lead in the Internet search market, but barely. But Microsoft would gain almost-instant access to Yahoo!'s customer base, which is probably coveted pretty highly in Redmond. We've all see these rumors over Microsoft and Yahoo! before, so I'm not holding my breath.