What if Google itself disappeared? War of the Worlds.

[jawn_tech]

In the spirit of "Search Engine Discussion", for fun and reflection, I'd like to propose a thread to gather your thoughts.

Over the last couple days, as most of us know, Google's PR feature on the toolbox is greyed out. There has been widespread panic, speculation, looting, fires, the end of the world is near.

Well, not quite. But almost.

While some of us are rolling our eyes, and probably expecting an answer soon, I can't help but take the scenario a step further, and pose an evocative, though unrealistic scenario -- what would happen to the internet if Google itself disappeared?

I'm talking, vanished altogether. What would life be like, post-google?

For me, it would almost be like the panick surrounding the famous Orson Wells radio play, "War of the Worlds". Google fans would interpret it as the end of the internet itself, even more infamous (but not anti-climatic) than Y2K. Who would step out in front? Who would survive -- who wouldn't? What dependencies of Google are there that exist and sustain the internet globally?

It's been said there's more to the internet than Google. But in light of the past couple days.....is there?

(And by the way, for any War of the World fans, in case you didn't know -- the Steven Spielberg version with Tom Cruise is in theatres June 29.)

[cspelts]

I was actually thinking about this last night! My gut feeling is that a brilliant mind or two would step up to debut something worthy of filling the void. Google came to be in a world where Yahoo and Microsoft already existed. There was a need then, and there would be one now, for something "else."

I think it might be kind of fun to see what the something else might be?

[jawn_tech]

Lol, good point!

I personally think it would be funny, in a morbid sense, if Google intentionally went 'offline' just for a few days, with no press release, no announcement. Of course it wouldn't be funny in the sense that they are a publically traded company, so economically it would have reprocussions. But the Google prior to being public, as a private entity just up and disappearing like its PR toolbar did for a couple sweet days (boy that was funny watching the hysterical articles with all the "PR is gone as we know it!" sort of thing).

But you're right cspelts, it would spell opportunity for the right minds to step in and fill the void, which could be done, definitely.

[ctabuk]

Ok Jawn, we all know about your desire to become 'World Ruler'is this just another cunningly disguised plan to get Google to go off line leaving you the chance to launch your new SE 'Jawnsbot', you fiend.
Life without Google would be like life without spam.

[SEOforGoogle]

Life without Google would cause people to actually think about different ways to market their site - so in the long run it would be better for the Internet, but devastating for almost all of us in the beginning.

[shameless plug alert]

Have an article talking about this topic (kind of)

http://seoarticles.seoforgoogle.com/...ch-engines.cfm

[end of shameless plug alert]

[jimmie1_us]

I am responding because the post
solves the mystery of the tool bar not
working. At first I thought it was my spyware
program. Thinking it removed critical files.

I uninstalled and reinstalled the tool bar
and it began working. But I see now that
it all was coincidence. That the P/R feature
has simply stopped working web wide.
I guess Google had a glitch or did some type
of update.

As Far as the what if of Google disappearing all
together? Would it cause chaos or would the web
traffic come to an end? I think not!! We all go for
position and rank in Google. Myself included.
But the simple fact is that Google may be a bench
mark, but it is far from being the only SE !

Personally for me if it was to disappear. I would say
O well.. there goes another one. (smiling) Then knowing
the Yahoo's of the web and the may directories and web
sites will continue to generate traffic to my sites.

[DMC_34]

As for the Toolbar being going grey and watching people going nuts over it.

The hype over the PR is overblown and just a nuisance. Period

[megahertz28]

If Google disappeared completely that would mean the other engines (yahoo, MSN) would have a tremendous influx of searches. I think most SEM / SEO would agree that top rankings in these two are a bit easier than Google. That's not to say that in a few short months it would be just as competitive, just less mysterious.

[megahertz28]

Originally Posted by DMC_34

As for the Toolbar being going grey and watching people going nuts over it.

The hype over the PR is overblown and just a nuisance. Period

I'm not sure if I agree with that. The PR obsessed fanatics are annoying, true, It the rankings do have benefit for finding link partners by a quick glance to tell whether the largest search engine in the world thinks they have any credit. Although Alexa traffic, Yahoo's rank, backlinks, and further investigation of the site, & aesthetics can lead to congruent conclusions. It's best to have as much criteria as possible when making calculated decisions...especially if you are inclined toward efficiency & accuracy. The hype of PR IS overblown...I'm in the process of trying to capitalize on that, just another window, and additional opportunities.

[diveonline]

On the weekend I went to http://google.co.nz and as far as I remember it was error 500 in response. I tried http://google.com with the same result. I have to note that when accessing google.com from New Zealand you are redirected to google.co.nz anyway. Probably it was only google.co.nz that was down (hard to believe that my problem was caused by visiting http://booble.com day before).

How would my life be without Google? Probably better for me personally.
http://diveonline.co.nz is on top of "dive gear" and other relevant to our business searches in other search engines for search in NZ.
When searching by Google you will see directories or those who managed to get a link from authorities.
Some months ago the search results were absolutely pathetic. You bumped into police page talking about stolen dive gear or another authority’s page telling that you can't be in possession of dive gear and abalone at the same time.

[jawn_tech]

I think if Google (and all of its worldwide versions simultaneously) blinked out even for just a few days, you'd see a lot of domains and their sites up for auction for a quick sale. (i.e. Googlewatch, maybe?)

If it never came back on, the world would look to the remaining two -- Yahoo and MSN... but would the shakeup cause MSN to pull out in front, or would Yahoo stay on top? That's something I'd wonder about.

Strangely though, sometimes in my traffic stats I get from Google, I'm able to view what search queries they used to find my site, and there seems to be a significant number of people using "what is ____" (keyword). Perhaps Ask Jeeves would become much more popular then. I think what I'm getting at is that looking at the margin of traffic that comes from Google and any other SE, it just leads me to believe that Google stands so tall that its shadow is so dark, that the other SE's don't even come to mind for the majority of searchers. So hypothetically, take the shadow away even briefly -- and voila! People's eyes are opened that there are others, and they try using them for a change.

This is not to hint though that I don't like Google, because I do, and I like some of the new features they're coming out with... and I also like healthy competition among companies too...

[cspelts]

Originally Posted by jawn_tech

leads me to believe that Google stands so tall that its shadow is so dark, that the other SE's don't even come to mind for the majority of searchers.

I agree - and it should be interesting to see what happens when MSN is automatically the default when Microsoft debuts it's new version of Windows. That should shake the shadow a little! I like Google too, but it'll be fun to see what happens.

Originally Posted by ctabuk

just another cunningly disguised plan to get Google to go off line leaving you the chance to launch your new SE 'Jawnsbot', you fiend.

So tell me more about this 'Jawnsbot' - what will it do better than Google? Or what about 'ctabooogleuk?'

Maybe this new engine can have a humor filter which will push snarky content to the top of the SERPS?

[ctabuk]

Jawnsbot, I think I'll reply in the breakroom, too off topic lol

[Duncan Pollock]

To stir things up even more, how about "What would it mean if Microsoft disappeared?"
Maybe Netscape would re-emerge?
And the Firefox people would probably be ecstatic!

Duncan

[ctabuk]

Hey Duncan, are you saying we should kidnap Bill?

[Duncan Pollock]

ctabuk: Well, it might be a good idea.
What ransom do you think we could get for him?

Duncan

[SEOforGoogle]

"What ransom do you think we could get for him? "

...an Xbox 360...

[Duncan Pollock]

Okay. But suppose we asked for enough to supply every WPW member with one?

Duncan

[xmx]

I am not sure if I would consider the disappearing of google as a fact with too much importance for me.
Internet users would find new solutions online and probably some new internet entities would benefit and grow.
Also a lot of money spent in adwords would reach other advertising websites and would spread through the net.
It could be a nice evolution and not a revolution.

[ctabuk]

Originally Posted by SEOforGoogle

"What ransom do you think we could get for him? "

...an Xbox 360...

I think I can answer that who owns www.xbox360movies.com
It sure as heck is not Bill lol

Yes it's me, and I've got loads of others all with 360 movies