Errr well, it could be powerless.
As I was going through my morning routine of checking Sphinn, checking Digg, going through and checking out my latest backlinks (thanks Donncha!), I noticed a particular comment that rings true in my mind as well.
The comment left on the LinkWorth blog actually, by CyberCelt.
“I am boycotting G@@GLE. Internet users have given them this power and we can take it away.”
This is more true than I think Google realizes.
Google is in the position they are in because of us. Because of you, me, your family members, your bosses, and your distant relatives 2 countries over — and yes, even the girl next door! Google is the “super power” of the Internet because we say it is. We say it is by using Google.
If everyone switched over to Yahoo! or MSN, Google would lose billions in revenue. You think they would get the idea and wake up that they need to listen to their users?
Google is becoming more and more like Myspace vs. Facebook. Facebook listens, Myspace just hords the revenue and doesn’t really care about its users.
So thank you CyberCelt for bringing up that point that no one else wanted to say.
December 5th, 2007 at 10:30 am
I think its quite easier said than done!
Imagine yourself without google for even a single day and that means :
1. No google search.
2. no gmail
3. no google talk.
4. no google apps.
5. no google traffic for your blog (you can blog gbot)
6. no youtube
7. no adsense/adwords
and what not! can you imagine such a life ?
Can you give any decent alternative to these service ?? The answer is no. I’ve started acting as a normal user (earlier I was a google fan) coz google is misusing its monopoly but don’t you think that Facebook will become same service in some time. Till the time you don’t have power you provide service and once you know you control the market you stop caring about the users…so google isn’t doing anything new.
Till the time we have some good competition we can’t just get away from google
December 5th, 2007 at 10:36 am
ReviewSaurus,
Actually, I could.
1) Yahoo!, Mahalo, and many other unique search engines approaching
2) meh, it’s just a normal e-mail client to me
3) don’t use it
4) don’t use it
5) subscribers my friend, subscribers.
6) youtube? what’s that? ;)
7) see previous comments about AdSense. AdWords? over-priced, I don’t use it actively.
There is plenty of Google competition coming out and the more companies are willing the compete, the more Google will have to fight to keep their userbase.
December 5th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
Don’t forget the reason that we made Google so powerful. It is the best search engine which leverages adwords by being relevant.
What is beneficial about using a less useful source for searches? Google may lose billions if we stopped using them, but with the extra research time due to poorer search results, collectively the world would lose billions too.
As a site owner you don’t have to rely on Google, as you point out in the comment above, so why do you care? Is the PageRank drop or the smaller click areas in AdSense that much of a problem that you are still hung up about it? If that’s not it, then I still don’t understand what the problem is.
For a blog entitled Google Inside, I’m not entirely sure what future you would have if no-one used Google and they disappeared, so why wish that?
December 5th, 2007 at 2:57 pm
Phil,
“relevant”? hmmm
http://www.ginside.com/2007/1283/wonky-adwords-ads-in-gmail/
doesn’t feel very relevant to me :)
December 6th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Hmm, one screenshot of adwords inside gmail = google is irrelevant, let’s boycott them? You’ll have to do better than that - I use Google because Msn and Yahoo are inferior.
December 6th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Dave,
That is just one example of Google being irrelevant.
So why is MSN or Yahoo! “inferior” to Google? Just because you say so? You’ll need a little more justification than just your word that they are inferior. What is the proof you have of this?
December 6th, 2007 at 11:56 am
What do you use for day to day search and why, Jonathon?
December 6th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
Phil,
I use a blend of Google and Yahoo!
Google because it loads faster (the homepage).
Yahoo! because I get different results than I see with Google. Sometimes, depending on the search, I find Yahoo! more relevant than Google. I also hate how highly ranked Wikipedia is on Google, so I actually block Wikipedia results completely for all my searches on Google.
I know search engines are gamed and it’s not hard to do, for any of them.