Gorby, Maddy and Jimmy, oh my!

It seems former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev dropped by Google last week, joining the growing list of politicians and mucky-mucks to commiserate with the Web's own equivalent of a super power. Earlier this year, former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former president Jimmy Carter were visitors to the Mountain View, Calif., Googleplex, a company representative confirmed. Other celebrity drop-ins in years past include movie star Gwyneth Paltrow, former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young and former Vice President Al Gore (who's now a Google advisor).

But the latest round of influential political visitors comes as the newly public company takes an even bigger role on the global stage. A Google representative said the visits are typically adhoc, conversational and unpaid. Carter, for example, spoke to staff about the Carter Foundation, which contributes to such causes as disease control.

"From time to time, we discover opportunities to bring different folks to Google to meet with some or all of our employees," according to the representative. But who knows? With its ambitious plans to bring public access to all the world's information, up next could be Google Government.