You'll probably come across this story a few times, because it is superficially compelling. The short version: the death of James Kim, the CNET editor who died this week in the wintry mountains of southwest Oregon, was Google's fault. The argument: Kim may have put too much trust in the search engine's online maps. Do we know he even asked Google for directions? No, but he might have, according to the authorities. And, while a rival mapping service from Yahoo suggests a longer, safer route from Grants Pass, Google Maps recommends a shortcut that's dangerous in bad weather. People: it's a decent search engine, not the omnipotent being.

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