I have always maintained that however good your free listings with Google are it is vital to maximise your exposure with other major search engines as a sudden drop in ranking with Google (they keep finding new ways to make that happen) could cause a major problem. This means a certain amount of involvement with the paid inclusion model is inevitable.

Three of the most important engines for me have been Altavista, Inktomi and Alltheweb. Now with "Overture Site Match" being the only way to approach getting indexed, certainly at Altavista and Inktomi, we are looking at a very different model where you are looking not only at a fee for having your site regularly re-spidered, but effictively forced pay per click as well.

I have had to withdraw certain services I once offered on a pay per enquiry basis until I can get more information on the cost implications or alternatives. I reckon that will be at least six months, when existing commitments via the original pricing plans for these engines expire.

I can see there is going to be a titanic clash between the king of pay per click and the king of free inclusion with every SEM in the world caught in the middle. Any educated opinions (guesses) as to how this will pan-out and alternative strategies for the interim period would be appreciated as frankly I am a bit worried.

I believe the writing is on the wall and the structure of the internet will be permanently changed by all this.