From Wikipedia:

… Software that secretly monitors the user’s behavior… Spyware programs can collect various types of personal information, such as Internet surfing habit, sites that have been visited…

Google Chrome browser was found doing this. According to the test performed, if you open Microsoft.com in Google Chrome Browser

All calls were addressed to IP 74.125.43.100 (host: bw-in-f100.google.com) which is Google’s for sure.

http://74.125.43.100/complete/search?client=chrome&output=chrome&hl=en-US&q=…

For example:

Session Protocol
—————-
GET /complete/search?client=chrome&output=chrome&hl=en-US&q=h
["h",["http://www.hm.com/","hotmail","home depot","hsbc"],["Hx26M","430,000,000 results","32,300,000 results","27,800,000 results"],[],{”google:suggesttype”:["NAVIGATION","QUERY","QUERY","QUERY"]}]GET /complete/search?client=chrome&output=chrome&hl=en-US&q=htt
["htt",["http://www.facebook.com/","httpservletrequest","httrack","http 500"],["Facebook","1,000,000 results","554,000 results","87,500,000 results"],[],{”google:suggesttype”:["NAVIGATION","QUERY","QUERY","QUERY"]}]

So it seems like whatever you do is monitored by Google. Not just the search. It seems to me like Google has a plan to take over the world after it takes over the WEB.