If Google Dies …
Posted on September 1, 2008
Filed Under Search Engine Optimization, starting up, web traffic |
What would happen if GOOGLE ‘DIED’ ?
It’s been a bit amusing to see how the internet world has become so ‘googlified’ (definition: trance-like behaviour pattern where individual build’s his entire internet experience around Google ) . Everything somehow seems to be built around google’s mysterious page ranking and search engine mechanism. Somehow google seems to have become … all encompassing ( Adsense, Checkout, Gmail, Blogspot, Feedburner, Youtube, the list goes on and on) , seemingly having the power of life and death as far as the internet is concerned.
First off, I’d like to say that I have NO problem whatsoever with google. I run adsense ads on this site and a couple of others I own and love using their tools . I think the underlying concepts behind google are extraordinary in a sense, and it goes to show how far simple ideas can go.
BUT I just can’t help thinking - what if you wake up tomorrow, type in ‘www.google.com’ into your web browser and get a ’server cannot be found’ error … repeatedly ? Don’t just read through that last sentence, REALLY REALLY THINK ABOUT IT. Would you suddenly become severely ‘handicapped’ ? Some of us have been visiting different web sites for over a year, we know what it looks like, what services are offered and are even registered, but we couldn’t type out the URL to save our lives. How have we coped - get to google, type in something close enough and google does the rest for us .
Certain terms over the years have gone on to define entire internet businesses. A few of these include Search Engine Optimization(SEO), Keyword Research, Search Engine Marketing etc but everyone who seriously is involved in any of these knows that the focus here is Google, doubt it and you wont know what hit you. No one could seriously question that. In otherwords, SEO is actually GSEO ( Google SEO ) actually that should be written as ‘Gseo’, since the focus is more on the ‘G’ than the ’seo’. Literally speaking, if google overturned every sensible rule for writing content websites, we’d all follow without any questions, atleast at the beginning.
How many websites have been torn apart, re-written and overhauled just to get into Google’s good books ? How many businesses rely to a considerably scary degree on organic traffic sent by google ? What exactly will be the effect on online businesses and internet commerce as a whole if Google ‘dies’ ? While we all seem to revel in Google’s efficiency, and continually improved algorithm, what if this soothing ’spell’ is lifted ? And we suddenly have to ‘grow up’ and find our way around the internet ?
The obvious answer is to suddenly flock on droves to yahoo amd msn search engines. The problem with this is
- as I write this I don’t even have the faintest idea how thier algorithm works except assuming it’s not exactly like google’s
- Very few sites if any have been optimized in the barest way for these search engines
So having thought of this I’ve compiled a list of 5 things that would happen if google died
- Confused internet Users : There’ll be an incredible number of internet users, stuck in front of their browsers with no idea where to go ( think granny at the centre of a busy airport with no directions, electronic boards or helpful attendants )
- Stunned Internet businesses : There’ll be a whole lot of online shops, internet businesses etc with such a drop in traffic, every panic alarm will go off ( think shopping mall with no customers, clients or even window shoppers ), suddenly everyone will wonder “what we’re we thinking”
- Entire businesses will be wiped out : Don’t get me wrong, definitely not all of them ( the few who can quickly put up new solutions and re brand themselves ), but a lot of SEO and SEM experts may go down with google especially those who somehow have figured out strategies for gaming google and have no idea how to do basic SEO
- The Adsense Incentive : Before adsense, people were happy to see growing traffic and derived -maybe- a sense of acheivement just fro that. Then adsense came along with contextual ads, and traffic suddenly became equivalent to profits. Free to setup, easy to customize, easier to cash. What would happen to all the blogs and forums who have lived off adsense checks ? Not like everyone makes money off Adsense, but seeing your account up by a dollar, has a really stimulating effect ( I should know a thing or two about that ), What would happen to these guys ?
- The reign of Social Media networks : Apart from google, luckily a good number of people can remember the url to their favourite social media networks. So if google goes down, social media will be the next stop. Whether its facebook, digg, stumbleupon etc more people are going to be turning to discussion groups within these sites, friends, fans etc there may even be a strong distrust for search engines, giving social media sites as good a chance as the other search engines
I’m sure you get the picture. So , what do you think ? What else is likely to go down with google? and what should we all be doing to stay afloat if the ‘titanic’ sinks ?
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[…] ‘G’ anywhere, no youtube, no search, no blogspot? I think you should read this articleread more | digg […]
What about all the e-mail that would be lost. A lot of people would lose a great deal if this were to happen, so hopefully they have a backup somewhere. Like a hollowed out mountain or something equally as big.
Nice article. Reminds me of a friends article;
http://web-tweets.posterous.com/what-would-you-do-if