I actually had this exact same problem a few days ago... I also couldn't get to google, and I was getting a lot of script errors on other pages (like windows update). The errors were something to the effect of "class not registered", so it was probably some dll that got unlinked, but I couldn't figure out which one. I ended up booting off the cd and repairing my installation, and now everything works fine again.

CUViper, unfortunately, it was every machine in my house/network. So I know it wasn't something to do with my machine, or any single machine on the network.
 
I found out that it was a problem with the new firmware in my modem. When I recieved it from USR, it was version 3.0.5. I recently flashed it to 3.0.6, which is when all my problems started. So needless to say, I went back to the first version, and now I'm typing this from home...WooHoo!!
 
All is good....
 
Klark...

The thing with mine was that other computers on my network were able to browse just fine - and they were going though my computer with ICS! So in my case it was definitely a browser/os issue. But at least you were able to find and correct your issue as well...