The conflict of interest I see is more along the lines of when it comes time for the government to pick a service provider, for save, Maps, Docs, Email, etc, Go

The conflict of interest I see is more along the lines of when it comes time for the government to pick a service provider, for save, Maps, Docs, Email, etc, Google being part of the bidding (with say Microsoft and Apple as the other bids) creates the appearance of favoritism. Of course, one could argue that in many cases, Gmail is a better solution than Exchange or Outlook for the government workers, but Google as CTO will forever taint any wins. I don't think the Goldman comparison works. In those cases, industry reps control the implementation of regulations or help draft rules or laws, and that is a much bigger conflict of interest.