The thing is that is scary about that is - if Google takes a leap like that, and builds a successful appeal to webmasters to go to them for SEO services (SEO consulting services + site design, etc.), then Yahoo AND MSN would jump on that.

Site owners can then pick who they want to go to for SEO services - Yahoo-centric, MSN-centric, Google-centric. At this point in time, Google would corner the market easily.

And here's how Google can appeal to users - Google can now "guarantee" that users would not find spammy top-ranking websites anymore. So users can be confident in using Google again.

Then, after Google corners the market - how can Google explain away their SEO services once there is status quo in their SERPs? Simple. Google will next factor who is paying more to be ranked higher.

This is a doomsday scenario. I'm just throwing it out there. But again - not just possible, but plausible. Like I said - the burden of being a public company is now upon Google. Shares are down $3/share on 2/25/05.

Google => corner SEO/SEM market & offer SEM services to all website owners
Google = $ $ $ $D