This is a question we do not ask because we simply know it could never happen. Think about it – Facebook and Google have become two companies we could not live without! Think about it again and it will hit you. Quick! You need to do anything in your power to get a job in either of the two Internet giants…
Fact is, the web can no longer be separated from the search function and the social networking function. And these two functions are dominated by two companies, which are not going anywhere. SMO = Facebook and SEO = Google. For search you will ask me what about Bing? It will be gone in five years if Microsoft does not come up with something truly innovative. You think I am crazy? Look at all Google services surrounding search and compare to what Bing offers. AdWords, Analytics, AdSense, Trends, Webmaster tools, Google+ and a bunch of connected services make Google a company that controls optimization. Notice I did not say search engine optimization, but simply optimization. By this I mean anything that makes people visit your site. Its Google, which decides what you need to put on your site and if you do not listen you will be the only one reading your blog. You have no choice but to surrender to this tyrrant.
If we did not have Google it is likely we would have had several players in the search engine market. They would have been incorporated in web portal such as yahoo.com or msn.com. But is worth considering whether we would have been better off with several competing players in the market? One side effect of Google’s dominance is that everything on the Interent is starting to look alike. AdSense ads are everywhere, the same formats are placed on more and more websites and all of open source is now Google oriented. Would it not be nice to be surprised once with a page that is unique and not optimized the Google way? With many companies in the picture, you could never optimize for everybody and would have to choose, in which search engine you really want to dominate. On the other hand, with standarization businesses have it easier to accomplish certain tasks and online marketing is more coherent. In all, SEO with out Google would surely be much different, bu not necessarily better.
Jason Murk