Just like in the real world, there are dominant players in cyberspace. And in the Internet, nothing gets much bigger than Google. In fact, in the United States alone, Google takes up 70 to 75 percent of the search engine market. In other places such as the Europe, South America, and Southeast Asia, that percentage can escalate to more than 90 percent. Google has virtually conquered the entire search engine industry that its name is now recognized in Merriam-Webster’s dictionary as a verb.

Just like in the real world, tremendous success is bound to attract a lot of attention, and Google’s success is no exception. There is a huge collection of blogosphere and press corps that pores over Google’s every move. Is Google going to launch its own cell phone network? Is it really going to buy Twitter? Does the search engine answer every question as seen in “Twilight?”

After a few years scrutiny, people have gathered myths and urban legends about Google. Here are the top 5 myths about this mighty search engine.

1. Google does not make any money.

Presently, Google provides a huge number of online service—the search engine itself, Google Maps, Google Earth, Google docs, etc. Add in the websites the company owns such as Picasa, Blogger, and YouTube. All these service have one thing in common—they do not cost the user a penny.

This led to the belief that Google does not make any money. There are even persistent rumors that the company does not have a business model. So how does the search engine finance itself?

Advocates of Google not being able to make money may have to dive deep in their bedcovers in shame. In 2008, Google made nearly $22 billion in profit, a majority of which came from advertising using Google developed Google AdWords and Google AdSense.

AdWords are ads that appear above and beside the main search results of a Google search engine result page. Whenever someone clicks an ad, the advertiser pays Google 10 cents. It may not be a steep investment for advertisers, but if you multiply this by millions of clicks per day, you can just imagine the wealth amassed by Google.

AdSense works in the same way but the text ads appear in non-Google websites. If you are running a website and want to earn some cash, you can sign up with AdSense. After your application is approved, Google uses algorithms to show ads to your site’s visitors. When a visitor clicks on an ad, the advertiser pays Google. Google, in turn, gives you a percentage of that fee.

2. Google is making people dumb.

There was a time when you have to go to the library and dig up books to research about the capital of Uruguay, what exactly happens under the earth, who is the first female NASA astronaut, and similar questions. Now you only need to type certain keywords, and Google will provide you websites that answer your question. Instead of intelligence and long-term memory, you can now rely on a search box. This phenomenon births a thought-provoking question: is Google making us dumber or has it redefined the way we define “smart”?

According to a recent article in The Atlantic Monthly, people have been blaming technology for the downward spiral of human intelligence. In addition, studies reveal that the Internet has caused alarming changes in the way we process information. For instance, we skim or link-jump to acquire the information we need rather than read linearly to digest information as we would in a book or magazine.

However, a huge majority are defenders. According to them, Google made us smarter by giving us instant access to the world’s collective knowledge. They advocate that Goggle is a smart, new-wave solution that is easier and more practical than the outdated library system. With Google, we can get up-to-the-minute solution from several sources with extremely fast speed.

3. Google is all-knowing and it knows everything about you.

Google has extremely powerful servers that allow it to save search queries associated with your Internet Protocol address. It utilizes certain software to scan Web e-mails for keywords. It can find you with its new cell phone service called Latitude. Special software allows Google to predict what you want to watch in YouTube.

It’s quite frightening to know considering that Google has access to all your information. You might have goosebumps all over your skin realizing that they can use it in malicious ways.

Well, fear not. As attested by Google representatives, no data that Google saves and analyzes is personally identifiable. In other words, your search queries, for instance, are interpreted as searches done by your computer’s IP address, not you as a person. An IP address gives Google only a vague geographic location.

In addition, Google employees are prohibited from making connections between individuals and its IP addresses. In fact, Google has disapproved requests from the US government for search histories for investigation.

You can be assured of security. After all, Google’s corporate philosophy is that “you can make money without doing evil.”

4. Google Earth is looking down at your every move.

Google Earth provides you with satellite images of virtually every place on earth. Just enter your home address, and the camera swoops down from the highest reaches of the sky to display a cool aerial shot of your abode. Zoom closer and you can half expect to see that kiddie pool in your background.

This created the myth that Google Earth is a powerful real-time spy camera. This could be farther from the truth. The images you see on Google Earth were, on average, taken one to three years old. Google composites its collection of images from satellite images, aerial imaging companies, the military, and other government agencies. In other words, what you see in Google Earth may not be updated. Thus, it is possible to get caught on camera by Google earth; however, this would entail a one in a million chance.

Google Earth’s “Street View” option displays street level images. However, these images, just like Google Earth’s aerial ones, are updated only once every few years. In addition, Google also has a face-blurring algorithm to protect the identity of folks accidentally captured on camera.

5. Google is making moves to make the Internet its property.

Google watchers have reported that the company is buying hundreds of miles of dark fiber, a high-speed fiber optic networking cable that has not been switched on yet. It has been rumored that Google owns more dark fiber than any other entity in the world.

This leaves you asking a provoking question: why would Google buy lots of extra wire that are not even used yet? If you prefer shortcut answers, it could be that Google is planning to hijack the Internet. Google will utilize all that dark fiber to build its own faster and more efficient version of cyberspace. When the time comes that Internet service providers reach their capacity in meeting increasing bandwidth demands, they will have no choice but to route all traffic through Google.

Google has a less doomsday-related answer to that question. The company simply wants to use dark fiber to interconnect its data centers around the globe.

In addition, Google has partners with telecommunication companies to borrow bandwidth on their nationwide networks. In order to make these arrangements work efficiently, Google has to route a huge amount of its traffic to specific locations. Doing so requires a lot of extra networking fiber.

Thus, you can be assured that Google is not taking over the world.