Google CEO Eric Schmidt interviewed Arizona senator and Republican presidential candidate John McCain on Friday during the company's Authors@Google series. The video of the interview is below.

If you're a Google fanboy, you'll love the vibe and inside jokes in the video. And, if for whatever reason you dislike Googlers for their obnoxious egos or self-aggrandizing behavior, you'll enjoy poking fun.

(Make sure you watch around minute 23 in the video, when McCain mentions his "bomb, bomb Iran" flub, says he won't do that again, then says "maybe I'll do something different, like Good Vibrations." Pause. Nervous laughter.)

Personally, I think it's mostly a good thing for a smart, public company like Google -- a company which symbolizes the zeitgeist of our times -- to interview presidential candidates with tough, practical questions that dig deeper than MSM talk shows and debates. Schmidt: "Why should we believe the surge will work, given that the previous execution is so poor?" The follow-up: "Is there a level at which Iran's behavior justifies a pre-emptive strike?" The short answer: Yes.

At the same time, no matter how "benevolent" Google may be, there is something disturbing about Google's CEO playing interlocutor to a national politician. After all, here is a company that controls 60 percent of all Web searches. Do we want our information gatekeepers granting their imprimatur to any candidate?

Maybe it's a silly question. Google is already a political machine. The company runs a non-profit arm, Google.org, supports the development of hybrid electrical cars, supports solar energy and regularly lobbies Congress on a variety of issues. Not to mention that YouTube has taken a very visible role in the '08 election. And, what's more, old media newspapers (some public, some private) have long taken sides in political battles. An interview series at Google is hardly an escalation.

I guess my unease arises from the fact that Google is much more powerful than any newspaper or media conglomerate we've ever seen. Before you could always change the channel, or read a different paper, or listen to a different radio station. But as the world becomes increasingly more digital, and as we search more and more through Google, Google becomes our de facto cultural and political arbiter. How long before we can vote via Google? Will that be a good thing?