Google as an ISP? Is there no end?

Back in the early days of the Internet, there was a lot of talk about ISPs (Internet service Providers) and the power they had. They still have power today but they do not have the same pizazz. Having a connection to the Internet is not special today because it seems as if everyone has access in some way or another. Of course, that is a generalization and if I did more research I would guess that there are socio-economic lines drawn between the haves and have-nots, but that’s just a guess.

Regardless, it takes a very big name to make the idea of an ISP interesting again, and in this day and age there is no bigger name than Google, and yes, they are looking to become an ISP along with everything else they do.
The Official Google Blog tells some of the story:

We’re planning to build and test ultra high-speed broadband networks in a small number of trial locations across the United States. We’ll deliver Internet speeds more than 100 times faster than what most Americans have access to today with 1 gigabit per second, fiber-to-the-home connections. We plan to offer service at a competitive price to at least 50,000 and potentially up to 500,000 people.

The underlying “altruism” of this program gives more speed for less cost to people so they can do more things with their time on the Internet. There are applications that are likely waiting in the wings for more speed on the net so that they can perform. Heck, even video still chokes with today’s higher bandwidth connections.
So Google is looking to have a piece of the end user’s life from the connection to the, well, whatever they want. I am still wondering if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Do I want Google to provide everything that could make my life better and also have more information on me than my closest family members do? Or should I even worry at all? Here’s the official Google video about the experiment:

Is Google acting as an ISP a good thing? Let’s let you decide whether this a blessing or something else.