It would be interesting if, as LinkMaster suggests, rank-and-file Web searchers have somehow noticed a difference between Google and Yahoo results and have begun some kind of "migration."

But do you really think these kinds of things - as dramatic as they may appear to us - are noticed by the great unwashed?

They can't identify as suddenly "missing" results they didn't know were there in the first place. So (again, as LinkMaster suggests) some kind of general disenchantment with Google results would be needed to start a migration away.

But are Google's results suddenly "worse" just because some of our sites have dropped in rank? For many Web searchers, that same turn of events may be delivering what they see as great results :-)

I disagree with posters who have claimed in related discussions that optimization is just a mug's game. But Google has a financial imperative to remain the (arguably) best-quality search engine by getting SE spammers and plain-old crappy sites out of the top rankings.

Rather than battle Google, the obvious approach would seem to be to *not* build crappy sites and focus optimization efforts on *not* looking like the kind of site Google thinks searchers *don't* want to find :-)