Contrast this with the Oxford English Dictionary's entry for Hacker, noun:
1. One who hacks; one who hoes with a hack.
2. That which hacks; an implement for hacking, chopping
wood, or breaking up earth; a chopper, cleaver; a hoe,
mattock.
3a. A person with an enthusiasm for programming or using
computers as an end in itself. colloq. (orig. U.S.).
3b. A person who uses his skill with computers to try to
gain unauthorized access to computer files or
networks. colloq.
One of the quotations listed under 3b. is also notable:
1983 Byte May 298/1 ‘Hacker’ seems to have originated at
MIT. The original German/Yiddish expression referred to
someone so inept as to make furniture with an axe, but
somehow the meaning has been twisted so that it now
generally connotes someone obsessed with programming and
computers but possessing a fair degree of skill and
competence.
Until recently, these were the exact reasons that I avoided GOOG stock.
Nowadays, however, Google has a more immediate problem: Bing.
What would happen if Microsoft starts doing search deals with ISPs, portals, & mobile companies? Why would any company integrate Google search if Microsoft was willing to pay them to use Bing? Isn't this already happening with the Microsoft-Facebook and Microsoft-Yahoo deals?
One of the quotations listed under 3b. is also notable: