Shooting at Bubbles

Everyone believes that the reason that Google is the search monster it is is because of its algorithms; but while that may have been the case in the beginning it amounts to a very minor reason today. Sure Larry and Serge built a better mousetrap and wrapped it up with an interface that followed the K.I.S.S. principal to max; which they then sat right on top their golden goose called AdSense.

Building a better mousetrap however doesn’t ensure that you will remain at the top of the mountain forever. Any algorithm created by a human mind can be bettered by another – that is just human nature. The inevitability of time and pure human tenacity dictates that someone would  have taken the flag away from Google; but there was a point very early on where Lady Luck gave Google the biggest kiss of its life.

Google became a verb.

The moment that Google entered the human vocabulary the game was done, simple as that. It doesn’t matter how hard the other wannabes try they aren’t going to dethrone Google. It doesn’t matter one iota if Google screws up or ignores its motto do no evil; both of which are happening with regularity and still Google reigns the search and stock market.

After all when did you ever hear anyone say any of the following:

“I ‘Lived’ about that book the other night”

“Hey look what I found when I ‘Asked’ Jimmy the other night”

“Sorry sir but when I ‘Yahoo’d’ the new employee I found this….”

“I went ‘Snapping’ last night about that new movie”

Regardless of whether any one of those search engines returned the same or better results or not those verbs don’t work. They don’t flow with our speech and on a certain level make us feel uncomfortable. Whereas googling or googled flows – it fits. I know myself even though I rarely use Google I do use the term when speaking with other people and because of this Google wins. Every time the google verb is used they solidify their place in the marketplace and in the minds of users.

So Microsoft, Yahoo, Ask and all the others can try as hard as they want they will not remove Google from the top spot as long as they concentrate on building a better mousetrap. There is only going to be one sure way to beat Google – become a better verb.