Yet another Google toy: Google Trends

Google Trends (found via Simon Jefferey) allows the user to recognise basic trends, such as this comparison of search volume and news reference on the words "blog" and "wiki":

On top of that you also get filtering options by country, region, language and time.

Some of the results seem strange, but then Google does warn below the graphs that the results are based upon "just a portion of our searches, and several approximations are used when computing your results". Or another nice way to put it is on their help pages: "We hope you find this service interesting and entertaining, but you probably don't want to write your PhD dissertation based on this information." Also do read Shel Holtz on the lack of blog related data in Google Trends.

Looking at the last few Google products, such as Maps, Scholar, Video, Web Alerts, Analytics, Mail, Personalised home page, etc. I am well hooked on what they have to offer. Continuing at this rate I give myself another year before there is nothing left I dont do with Google on the internet and even in my native language "to google something" is a normal phrase by now.

As an information professional, should I be worried about privacy or happy about the nice new tools?