It came to me today during a flight from San Diego to Kansas City: Google is a Ponzi scheme. Really.

How do I know?  Well, Hitwise just released a report showing that Google now has over 70% of the search market, which is a staggering number, and seemingly continually growing.

So what are most of those people searching for? According to Google Insights, the number four most searched for thing on Google in the last 30 days -- the Hitwise period in question -- is "Google". In the same period a year ago (again according to GI) that same search was #5 in popularity on Google.

Get all that? The more widely Google is used, the more people search for Google on Google, which leads to more widespread Google usage. Dang, call the papers!

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As a somewhat more serious aside, the numbers 1-3 searches ahead of "google" on Google were mypace, youtube, and yahoo. That seems baffling -- couldn't people type the names in directly -- until you realize that many of these are from people using Google address bar boxes as bookmarks, and just typing in where they want to go.

Fair  enough, but how many people are doing that for Google? It's awfully meta to enter Google in a Google search box so that you can go to Google and search for "google".

Nice chart from New Scientist showing some of the unintended consequences of having traders copying one another's behavior. Click for a larger version.

As an aside, I'm trying to get the authors of the paper to speak at Money:Tech 2009 conference next year in New York. Fun stuff.

My financial book recommendation of the day goes to another in Wiley Investment Classic's series of book. This time it's Once in Golconda, a classic about life on Wall Street in the '20s and '30s, back in the time of short-selling syndicates and the like.

It is fun, and packed with parallels to today. A great read.