Dave Winer, in Snarky isn't trustworthy:

Google Base is all about RSS, right? That's cool. I understand RSS, and I like it. And no one owns it, dammit. But everyone's all concerned (rightly so, imho) about turning over our data to Google...So here's an idea, let's start a company, hire some great people to run our database. Instead of being the users in "user-generated content," we'll be the owners.

Why do we need another company, or another database? We each have our own personal tool to publish data out into/onto the web (it's called a blog). We have XML, so we can make our data mean whatever we want it to mean (i.e. - I'm selling my 30GB iPod for $150). So why not let the data be free, and let whoever wants to come along scoop it up and do what they will with it (assuming you've authorized them to, of course)?

Everyone says that Google Base is an attack on newspapers, on classifieds, on eBay, etc. I guess it is, but more than anything it's an attack on blogs, and the personal, distributed network that we each ourselves own a piece of. We don't need anyone but ourselves owning our own stuff.