What would the internet be like without Google?

This is a question I ask myself often, and find kinda hard to answer. I mean, Google has somehow found a way to cross over into all kinds of regular everyday things that it’s almost hard to believe that we haven’t put on the brakes fearing a Google takeover of our whole world as we know it.

So what do you think life would be like without the Big G? What if they never showed up on the scene? Would SEO/SEM even exist? Would Yahoo and MSN be head to head, or do you think some other search engine would be in the mix? Maybe even Alta Vista would be back in the game (you old schoolers can stop chuckling about that prospect).

As much as I love what I do for a living, I also hate Google at the same time for how they have treated the search marketing community. Sure we have Matt Cutts, but you can’t ever expect him to give away any real juicy info. At times, he just kinda sounds like he’s reiterating the webmaster guidelines and acting as a conduit to keep a fire burning in the SEO/SEM community so we can keep our clients foaming at the mouth for top placements and higher PPC bids. If you ask me, that’s a pretty good insurance plan for them to have.

Maybe I’m reaching a bit here, but sometimes I just wonder what it would be like without them. What’s your thoughts?

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